New Beginnings: Part 1 Dark Empire
by Camorite
Summary: On their way back to DS9 from a diplomatic mission, Kira, Odo, O'Brian, Bashire, Nog, Worf, and Jake's runabout is ambushed by a Jehadar ship. Durring the battle they are transported to another dimention. What will happen to them? You won't know if you
1. Chapters 1-4

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New Beginnings

Part 1: The Dark Empire

Chapter 1

It was quiet, to quiet, thought Chief Miles O'Brien, as the runabout Aries left orbit of the planet Palitous. As he looked around the cramped cabin of the small runabout, he saw only the people that had come with him on this mission. First there was Coronal Kira Nerys, Deep Space Nines first

Officer. A woman that he had grown to admire during the years that they had served together on the old Cardasian space station. She was a tall slender woman that had been a part of the Bajorian resistance movement for most of her life, which was probably one reason that he respected her so

much. Next, there was Doctor Julian Bashir, the stations chief medical officer. Julian, like Kira, was a tall and slender man, but he had one thing different about him that any other officer in Starfleet had, he was genetically engineered as a child. Because of this, Julian, at times, comes off as over zealous, but deep down inside, he was one of the noblest men that he had ever known.

After Julian, sat Jake Sisco. Jake was the son of Ben Sisco, DS9's commanding officer. Jake had come on the mission to write a story for the federation newspaper. Jake, like his father, had grown up to be a slender man, as well as one of the finest chiefs that O'Brien had ever known. After

Jake, sat Ensign Nog. Nog was a Ferengi, and as so, had the traditional Ferengi ears, which covered most of his face. Nog was the nephew of Quark, one of the franchisers that set up shop on DS9's promenade deck. Nog like his father Rom, is one of the finest engineers that he has ever known, and

holds both of them in high respect.

Across from Nog sat Lieutenant Commander Worf. Unlike the others, O'Brien has known Worf since his days on board the Enterprise D. Worf was a Klingon, and as such decided to follow the path of most other Klinongs, and follows the way of the warrior. But unlike most other Klingons, Worf has

been comfortable living as a Starfleet officer. Worf was a survivor of the Kittimer massacre, and was raised by the Rochencos, the family of the Starfleet officer that helped to save him. When he was old enough, he was excepted into Starfleet Academy, and has since, with the exception of a few

scrapes, has been a model officer. And finally, there is Odo. Odo is a Changelings, who are also called the Founders, because they created the Dominion, for who they are currently at war with. Since Odo has been with humans most of his life, he chose to fight on their side in the war, and not with his own people. Even though Odo can master the body of a humanoid, he has not perfected the face yet, and he looks sort of incomplete. But he really doesn't notice anymore.

As O'Brien looked at his colleges and friends, he could feel a sense of accomplishment in the air. Their mission to Palitous was to try to get them to break the non-aggression treaty that they had signed with the Dominion. And it looks as if they had seceded in doing. And after three long weeks of negotiation, the Palatines had finally decided to consider breaking the treaty with the Dominion, and join the Federation, Klinongs, and Romulons in their battle to save the Alfa quadrant from the Dominion, but only time would tell if they had truly seceded.

"Mr. O'Brien, take us home." Said Kira, breaking O'Brien's thought.

"Awe Coronal" O'Brien said as he worked the helm control. "Setting course for DS9, warp 2."

"Then lets go home Mr. O'Brien," Kira said with a smile on her face. "Engage!"

The small runabout took off into space, at warp two.

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Chapter 2

It had been only two hours since the runabout had warped away from the planet Palitous, and they were now nearing the Troain Nebula. O'Brien could scene the level of nervousness in the runabout, as they neared the nebula. He knew as well as everyone else that a Jemadar or Cardasian ship could easily hide in the nebula and not be detected by the runabouts sensors until it was to late. O'Brien quickly scanned for ion trails left by a warp drive, or even an impulse engine. 

Bashir just happened to look at O'Brien at that moment, and leaned in closer to see what his friend was doing. As he looked, Bashir recognized the standard sensor sweep. "What are you doing Miles?" Bashir asked.

O'Brien jumped a little in his seat, then looked back at the doctor. "I am scanning for ion trials." Bashir looked at him in question, then shook his head and sat back down.

Kira had overheard what the chief had said, and was now looking at him. "Why are you doing that Chief?"

O'Brien looked at her and said, "Just making sure that there are no Dominion ships in the area."

"And what have you found?" It was Jake who had also apparently overheard the conversation. "Are there any ships in the area?"

O'Brien turned back to panel, and looked at it. "According to the scans, there is a ion trail here that is consistent with a Cardasian Galore class ship, but it is so decayed, that it could have only been made a long time ago. But I am not ruling out the fact that the Dominion can somehow disguise". Just then the ship lurched up, then back down.

Worf called out from his station, "A Jemadar attack cruiser has come out of the nebula, Bering 257.2."

"Raise the shields, and arm the weapons." Kira ordered. "Chief evasive maneuver." Kira turned to Jake, "Jake try to contact DS9." Another hit rocked the ship. "Report" Kira Bellowed.

"Shields down to 80% Coronal, Photons are off line, and the structural integrity field is down 20%." Nog reported from his station.

"Returning fire". Worf hollered. He watched the phaser beam hit the ship. "No damage, continuing fire." The runabout was then rocked by another blast.

"Shields down to 60%, and the phasers are off line, as is the warp core." Nog reported.

"I can't raise Deep Space Nine Coronal, the Jemadar are blocking communications." Jake reported from his station, just as Odo came out from the small room in the back.

"What's happening" Odo asked in surprise.

"A Jemadar ship has come out of the Troain Nebula." Yelled Bashir

Kira's mind was racing a mile a minute trying to come up with a plan of action. Finally she just said, "Suggestions."

The ship rocked again from a direct hit. Nog reported, "Shields down another 20%."

Odo then spoke "Let me talk to the Jemadar ship, they might stop their attack if they know that a Changelings is on board."

Kira thought about it for a moment, then turned to Jake, "Hail the Jemadar ship."

As Jake did so, the runabout rocked with another blast. Worf then reported, "I think that that was their answer to our hail."

"Shields down to 30% Coronal." Nog Said as he looked at his readings, and then Said, "A few more hits, and the warp core will breech, and we are all dead."

"Any other suggestions?" Kira bellowed.

O'Brien checked his readings, then said, "Coronal, there is a spacial anomaly at 368 mark 2, if we can enter it before be get blown up, then their sensors won't be able to detect us, and think that we have been destroyed."

"How far away is it?" Kira asked as the ship rocked again from a weapons impact.

"200 Kilometers."

"Set a course Chief." Kira then turned to the others. "Suggestions on how we can stay alive long enough to get there."

Worf was the first to speak. "They might not be able to lock their weapons onto us, if we vented drive plasma behind us."

Kira made up her mind before anyone else could say anything, "Do it!"

As the Runabout Aries continued to dodge blasts from the Jemadar ship, warp plasma began to leak out of the nacelles. The blasts from the Jemadar ship continued to fire out, only this time, the blasts didn't go anywhere near the runabout. Inside of the ship, Worf reported, "It worked, the Jemadar cannot lock their weapons onto us."

Kira let out a small smile, and then turned back to O'Brien. "Chief, how long until we enter the anomaly?"

"20 seconds Coronal." Just as the words left O'Brien's mouth, another hit rocked the ship again.

The small cabin began to fill with smoke, as Kira yelled , "Report" 

Nog yelled back, "That wasn't a direct hit, but it did nick us."

Odo then yelled from the console that he was at. "They have began to compensate for the plasma's interference. They are locking onto us again."

"5 seconds to anomaly penetration" O'Brien reported.

From his seat, Bashir yelled out, "They are firing a torpedo at us. Impact in 3 seconds. 2, 1." And nothing. The lights dimmed out, then came back on.

Everyone began to check their panels. Worf was the first to report "The Jemadar ship had disappeared."

"Did they just disappear?" Jake asked.

Nog checked his board, "No, there is no ion trial."

"Maybe they were destroyed" Bashir Said.

"No" Nog confirmed, "There is no debris anywhere that matches the ship.

They just simply vanished."

'Thank the profits' Kira thought. She then said, "Damage Report."

"Warp drive down, and we only have half impulse power." O'Brien reported.

"Phasers and Photon Torpedoes are still off line. Shield down to only 10%" Worf reported

"Communications are still functional, but long range sensors are down" Odo Announced.

"Ok, Jake try to contact DS9." Kira commanded.

"I have been Coronal, and I can't seem to find a Federation communications station anywhere."

"But that's impossible" Bashir blurted out "the closest relay station, is only ten light years from here."

Just at the moment, the board in front of Worf lit up. "Coronal, there is a ship coming out of warp, it is of a configuration that I have never seen before."

Everyone looked out the view ports, and saw what appeared to be a massive ship the size of a Galaxy class starship, maybe even larger, appear in front of them. The ship had sort of a dark design to it, and was shaped so that the front of it was pointed, as if it intended to slice the space that

it flew through. Beside it, two smaller ships equally shaped but considerably smaller appeared.

As they were looking at the ship, the communications board lit up. Nog saw this, and said, "They are hailing us"

Kira took a deep breath, and said, "On Screen." The image of an older man appeared on the screen. He wore what looked like a gray uniform that had stripes on it just under his right shoulder. He had a graying Mustache, and wore a hat, that sort of reminded her of an old engineer's hat that she had read about in Earth's history years earlier. Kira then spoke "I am Coronal Kira Nerys, in command of the Federation Runabout Aries, may I ask who I am talking to?

The man just continued to stare forward, and said, "I am Admiral Ozzel,

commander of the Imperial Supper Star Destroyer Emperors Pride. Be

prepared to stand down, and to tell me why you are in this sector of

space."

****

Chapter 3

Kira looked at the rest of the crew, then looked back at the screen. "Admiral, I think that there has been a misunderstanding, we are not here to battle you. In fact, if you will scan our ship, you will find that we couldn't even take out a scout ship in our condition."

Admiral Ozzel just looked at Kira, then turned his attention to somebody off to his side, and looked back into the screen. "Our scans have shown that your ship is damaged very heavily. Seeing this, I ask if you could use some assistance?"

Kira nodded, and said, "That would be most appreciative. We will dock with your ship immediately."

"No." Ozzel said, "I first must get permission from Lord Vader, our liaison from the Emperor. We will signal you within the hour, Ozzel out." And the screen went dark.

Kira turned around in her chair, and looked at the rest of the crew. "Impressions?"

Worf was the first to speak. "Caution, we do not know where they came from, or who they are."

"I agree with Worf Coronal," Odo added, "We have no idea where we are, or who they are. For all we know, this is a trick that my people are using on all of us, like they did when we first met them. Or they could very well be changelings, in disguise, trying to get information from us."

O'Brien interrupted, "I don't think so Constable."

Everyone looked at O'Brien. "What do you mean Chief" Jake finally asked.

O'Brien called up a navigational chart. "This is what the space looked like an hour ago, and this," A new chart came up on the screen. O'Brien continues, "is where we are now."

The new chart showed a completely new and uncharted star system. "Then where are we?" Nog finally asked after a few moments.

"I think that," O'Brien started, "we have either been thrown to another part of the galaxy, or, we have passed into an alternate reality.?

"Which would explain why the computer doesn't recognize any of the stars." Bashir added.

"But this doesn't seem like the alternate reality that several of us have visited before." Jake said.

Worf spoke up this time, "That is because the reality that you, the Coronal, Ensign Nog, and doctor Bashir have visited is only one of several possibilities. I know that from my own experience in this matter."

"Commander Worf is right," Nog spoke up, "At the Academy, we learned that there are an infinite number of alternate realities in the universe, that is why dimensional travel has never really become a reality yet, because there is to much randomnimity in it."

"Is there any way to tell if we have crossed into another dimension Chief" Kira asked.

"The only way that I can think of, is to check the quantum signature. But to do that, we have to scan a person from this reality."

Kira thought for a moment, and then decided. "Ok, Doctor that will be your job, if and when we go aboard, I want you to get a reading of the quantum signature of the people of that ship."

"Yes Coronal, but I will need a little time to get a tricorder ready."

"Very well Doctor, get to work." Turning to Worf. "Commander, you will issue a type one phaser to every one here, including Jake."

"Ewe sir" And Worf went to the wall, and opened it. He took out several small phasers, and started to hand them out to the rest of the crew. 

Continuing to give out orders, "Nog, Chief, assuming that they do have the proper parts, how long until we can have the warp core and weapons on line again?"

O'Brien spoke up, "About ten hours, if they have the right parts."

Nog then finished, "And about twenty if the parts are not compatible."

"Very well," Kira stated, "Get started on them as soon as possible." She now turned to Jake and Odo. "And finally, you two will find out as much about this empire as possible."

"And how do we do that?" Jake asked.

"Simple Jake," Bashir started, "Just be a reporter."

"Exactly, just be yourself." Kira said, "Meanwhile, Odo will be our ace in the hole, and try to access their computer systems."

"And how do I do that?" Odo asked.

"By just being a Changeling." Kira answered.

******

Admiral Ozzel walked down the corridor, until he came up to the door room that he was going to. The admiral took a deep breath, and walked into the room. The room was large, but where a bed would usually set, there was a large black globe type device. It then opened, and sitting inside of it,

sat a figure dressed entirely in black, with a small computer unit on his chest. He also wore a black mask, kept on by a black helmet. As he stood up, a black cape fell down. Deep breathing could be heard, as he walked up to the edge of the chamber. The figure then stepped out of the chamber,

and walked up to the Admiral. "What is it Admiral?" He said in a deep voice that seemed to be coming from the computer on his chest. 

The Admiral felt very nervous as he gave the news to the figure. "Lord Vader, a small ship has appeared. They appear to have been in battle, and are badly damaged. We have offered our assistance, and they wish to dock with us in order to conduct proper repairs. I did not wish to let them

dock until I have asked you about it."

Vader knew why the Admiral had asked first. A short time ago, before the empire had finished construction of their mightiest weapon, the Death Star, a giant ship, that was as big or bigger than a planet, and had enough firepower to destroy one, the rebellion had planted a bomb in a stolen

Imperial Shuttle, that had been carrying supplies, and had set it on autopilot. The shuttle had docked inside on this very ship. Just as the crew had stepped onboard, to begin unloading it, the bomb went off, and nearly destroyed the entire ship. When he had found out about it, Lord Vader immediately executed the commanding officer, and placed Ozzel as his replacement.

"Have you made contact with the ship yet?"

"Yes my Lord, they say that they are a part of some sort of Federation, and there is a woman in command."

"A woman, how interesting." Lord Vader considered it for a moment, then told the Admiral, "Let them dock, and give them access to whatever materials they need to properly fix their systems."

With noticeable relief in his voice, "Yes my Lord."

The Admiral started for the door, and was almost though, when he was stopped in his tracks. He immediately knew that it was Lord Vader, and that he was no done yet. Ozzel turned around, and looked at Vader. "I there something else my Lord?"

"Yes Admiral Ozzel, there is. Let the crew of that ship know that they are invited to dine with us, and to give them a tour of the ship." 

"As you wish my Lord."

This time, Ozzel left the room, and the door closed behind him. Vader then thought for a moment, and walked over to a small pad in the middle of the room. Vader then pushed a button on the panel, and an officer on the bridge appeared. He was younger than Ozzel, but wore that same uniform.

"Yes Lord Vader?"

"Captain Piett, contact Coruscant. Tell the emperor that it is a matter of concern."

"Yes my Lord, putting you through right now."

The image of Captain Piett disappeared. Vader stepped on the pad, and it began to glow. He then kneeled. In front of him, a holographic image appeared of an older man, with a hood over his head. His face was distorted, but one could still make out the fact that the man was old. The man then spoke. "What is it old friend?"

"Please forgive the interruption my Master, but it is a matter of great importance."

"Then speak."

"A small ship has appeared near to us. It is of a configuration that we have never encountered before, and they have been in a massive battle." Vader reported.

"I know of this ship. I felt it enter this universe."

"Yes my Master, I felt it as well. What shall I do about it?"

"Try to make them our allies. I sense that the ship, though small, is powerful, and may help us with our problems with the rebels." The empower paused for a moment, and then spoke. "Now go my friend, and show them the wonders of the dark side."

"It will be done my Master." Said Vader as the hologram vanished.

******

The Empirial palace on Croissant was the most spectacular sight on most spectacular planet in the entire empire. Only one other building had ever matched it, and that was the Jedi Temple of long ago. But now that building was nothing but ruble, destroyed by the Emperor after he and his forces defeated the last of the powerful Jedi Knights, thus plunging the entire universe into the dark hands of the Emperor.

The Emperor moved down the steps placed deep beneath what was considered street level of Imperial City, flanked by his personal guards both in front of and behind him. When they got to the bottom of the steps, they proceeded to a large door and stopped in front of it. "Wait here." The Emperor told his guards, as one of them opened the door, and then joined the others in flanking it.

As the Emperor walked into the room, the door closed, taking most of the light with it. The sole light source came from what looked like a wand that glowed red. However that glow was soon cut off, as the door thundered shut, and the Emperor began to move forward. He eventually came upon a beautiful woman in her early twenties, bowed down before him on one knee. Though her beauty was breathtaking, topped off by her full head of reddish hair, it was not that witch the Emperor came here for. "Rise my Hand, I have a job for you."

****

Chapter 4

Waiting, that was all that they could do. Since the end of the transmission from the Star Destroyer, Jake had watched the small crew get to work on their assigned tasks. Nog and Chief O'Brien, had began work on bringing the warp core on line, but from the subtle curses that he heard

O'Brien mutter, he knew that the repairs weren't going well, because, as he had learned while working with the Chief, he only cursed, when repairs were not going as planned. Worf, after dispersing the phasers, and giving Jake a quick lesson on how to use them, had gone to the back of the runabout, on

the way picking up his bat'telh. Jake concluded that Worf was expecting the worse, and was getting it ready just in case.

Dr. Bashir, had gotten to work on reprogramming his Tricorder to scan a person from a short distance. And Kira was manning the helm chair, in one of her meditation trances. Possible asking the profits for help, and guidance. and Odo was sitting in the corner, in his gelatinous state,

preparing for the mission that he would soon have to undertake.

Jake looked down at the pad that he was holding in his hand. It had on some of the questions that he would ask about this Empire. As he began to write down another question, he began to think of how this would make a great story, if he could ever get home to write about it. His thoughts

were interrupted by the sound of the communications board going off. He turned his chair, as the rest of the crew looked up in his direction. 

Jake then reported, "Incoming transmission from the Star Destroyer."

"On Screen" Kira ordered.

The image of Admiral Ozzel appeared on the screen once again. But this time, a man that wore the same uniform, but was at least half the admiral age accompanied him. "Federation Runabout Aries, you have been cleared for docking. Our tractor beams will guide your ship into our

shuttle bay."

"Thank you Admiral." Kira said. She then noticed that he wasn't finished. "Is there something else?"

"Yes Coronal Kira," Ozzel began, "Lord Vader has told us to make our facilities at your disposal, and has also ordered that you are to be given a tour of our ship, and has extended an invitation to dine with us tonight."

Kira considered the Ozzel's invitation, then spoke. "We accept your invitation Admiral Ozzel, and are eager to find out more about your Empire."

"As are we to find out more about your Federation." Ozzel put in. "We will begin docking procedures as soon as you are ready."

"We are ready right now.?" Kira put in.

Ozzel looked at them. "Very well then." He then looked off to his side, and nodded to somebody. The runabout was then encompassed by a blue light, and began to move. Ozzel then indicated the man beside of him. "Coronal, this is Captain Piett, he will meet you in the shuttle bay, and conduct your tour."

Captain Piett stepped forward, and spoke. "It would be an honor. I will see you in the bay."

Kira looked at the two men, and then spoke. "Very well Captain, see you in a few minutes." She then touched a button on her panel, and the screen went dark. Kira then turned around, to face the rest of the crew. She starred at them, and only said, "Get ready."

******

Captain Piett, walked swiftly to the bay, and arrived just in time to see the small ship come through the force field, and land. As the doors closed, he walked down to it, just as the hatch opened. Out of the open hatch, walked out six humanoid figures. The first one he immediately

recognized as Coronal Kira. She wore a reddish colored uniform type thing that went up to her neck, then parted somewhat. The next one out, as well as the three that followed, wore what appeared to be a uniform of some kind. It was mainly black, with a touch of gray covering both shoulders.

Under what he considered the shirt or maybe even a jacket, Piett could make out some sort of under garment that covered their necks. They each wore a set of pins on their collars. Piett figured that it was probably a symbol of rank. He also noticed that those garments were differently colored.

And one of them wore same sort of sash over his shoulder. The last one out, wore a multi colored outfit, not a uniform. They all had on some sort of pin, that was attached about six inches under their left shoulder, and all carried some sort of device with them, that was attached to their belts. All except for the one that didn't where a uniform, he carried a computerized pad with him.

Piett walked up to the group, and offered his hand to them. "Greetings, and welcome aboard."

Kira took his hand, and shook it. "Thank you Captain," Kira let go of Pietts hand, "May I introduce my crew?" Piett nodded, and Kira continued. She first indicated Bashir. "This is Doctor Julian Bashir, our medical officer, Chief Miles O'Brien, one of our engineers, Lieutenant Commander

Worf of the Klingon Empire, our security officer, Ensign Nog of the Ferengi Alliance, our other engineer, and finally Jake Sisco, a reporter with the Federation News Magazine."

Piett looked at the group, and then shook his head. "It is a pleasure to meet you all." He hesitated for a moment, then asked, "I must ask, what are those devices on your belts?

O'Brien was the first to respond, "They are called a Tricorders, they are scanning devises."

Piett considered O'Briens answer, and said, "Very well.", and he then indicated to a door that led out of the bay. "If you will all come this way please." Piett led the way out, followed by Kira, then O'Brien, Bashir, Nog, Worf, and finally Jake.

******

When they had entered the hall, Kira's pants began to move a little. It then began to change into a liquid ooze state, and slid off of her leg. The ooze then moved to a small vent, and slid inside of it. The ooze then took the shape of a rat, and began to move thought the ventilation tube. 

******

Piett had only began to show the crew around the great ship, when O'Brien noticed a small object heading their way. The object moved out of the way, as Captain Piett stepped near to it, and the man passed it. As he passed it, O'Brien looked back and saw that the object had began to move again.

He then made his way to the front of the group. "Captain!" Piett turned around to look at the engineer.

"Yes!" Piett paused for a moment, as the rest of the group stopped behind him. "Chief O'Brien, do you have a question?"

"Yes, I do." O'Brien then pointed back at the object that they had just passed. "What is that thing?" 

"That Chief O'Brien, is an Astromech Driod."

"A What?" Nog asked

"An Astromech Driod." Piett repeated. He then preceded to explain, as they began to walk again. "They are cybernetic creatures that help in the operations of this ship." As the group turned a corner, Piett continued to explain. "The Astromechs are interface Driods. They gather information,

and store it. They are usually teamed up with a Protocol Driod, who acts as the primarily interpreter for the Astromech Driod, since they are unable to speak basic. They are both quiet handy to have around." 

The group turned another corner, and Bashir asked, "Are there other types of Driods then?"

"As a matter of fact doctor," Piett began, "we use Driods for just about everything, except for the piloting and operations of the ship, that we take care of ourselves. Don't you have something similar in your Federation?"

Worf spoke up, before anyone else had a chance to. "No we do not."

"Then you have no Driods?" Piett asked, a bit startled

"Well," O'Brien started, "there is one being, that you could probably consider a Driod, when you first saw him, but to us, he is just a crew mate, and a friend."

"Only one?" Piett said with a little bit of shock. "And what kind of Driod is this?"

Once again Worf spoke up, but this time, there was a touch of anger in his voice. "He is not a Driod, but his name is Data, and that unit is a very close friend of mine, and the Chief's.

Piett obviously new that he had hit a nerve. "I apologies for my brashness Commander, I had no idea that this Data was a friend of yours."

Kira spoke up before Worf could, "Apology excepted Captain."

As the group walked further down the corridor, they passed a group of what Worf figured could only be soldiers, by the way that they walked together. They were also covered from head to toe with some sort of white armor, with a matching white helmet. They carried what looked to Worf like some

sort of rifles, and also wore a black belt, which had several pouches on it. "Captain," Worf spoke up, "Who are those people?" 

Without even turning around, Piett answered the question. "They are the Storm Troopers, the imperial army." And the Piett turned another corner, followed by the rest of the group. Piett continued to explain, "as you can see, they are dressed entirely in white." Everyone nodded. "That

armor that they wear, is why we call them Storm Troopers. Not to mention that they sound like a storm approaching when they run by." Piett let out a slight chuckle at the joke, and continued the tour.

******

Odo had been searching the ventilation system for about and hour now, and had not found very much in the way of useful information. But what he did know was that there was some sort of resistance to the empire, and that some were worried about it. Odo knew that the tour was going take a while on such a big ship, but he still figured that he had to hurry. As Odo came up to another vent, he stopped, and looked into the room. Inside, was what he was looking for, a access station. Quickly, Odo returned to his gelatinous form, and slipped through the vent bars. Once he had hit the

floor, he returned to his humanoid state, and proceeded to try and interface with the computer.

Before leaving the runabout, O'Brien had shown Odo a few tricks to hack into a computer system. Odo tried just about all of them, when he heard a noise outside of the room. He quickly returned to his gelatinous state, and turned into a part of the wall. Just as he completed his transformation, a small robot, that looked as if it were leaning back on two legs, and being supported by a small leg type thing that extended from it's bottom, entered the room. The robot approached the terminal that Odo

was just at, and stopped just in front of it. The robot then stood upright, and a small device emerged from its mid section. It looked like some sort of interface device. The device then attached itself to the terminal by way of a slot that Odo had not seen, and preceded to interface with it. After a few moments, the interface device disengaged from the terminal, and the robot left the room.

As the robot left, Odo changed back into his humanoid form, and walked back over to the terminal. "Well, if it worked for that little thing, I might just work for me." And Odo transformed into a copy of the robot, and moved up to the same spot the it was in. Odo them formed an interface tool

exactly like the one that the robot had used, and proceeded to interface with the terminal. As he interfaced, the terminal asked for a unit number, for the records. Odo immediately tried a number, and the terminal responded by not giving him access to the information. He disengaged from the terminal, and moved away from it. 

Odo quickly decided that the best way to move around in this ship might be to stay in this form, and so left the room. In the corridor, Odo began to consider what his next move should be, when he heard a voice behind him. "R2-D2, where have you been, I have been looking everywhere for you." Odo stopped dead in his tracks, and turned around to see a human looking robot walk up to him. It was chrome colored, and stood around six feet. The robot continued to talk, this time more quietly. "Master Luke said that we were to be at on the escape pod 5 minutes ago, in order to rendezvous with

Captain Solo and Chewboka." The robot began to walk away, and motioned for Odo to follow. "Well, come on. Honestly, I don't know how I let Master Luke talk me into this, I am not the courageous one, why send me." And figuring that he had no choice, he followed the other robot, as it

continued to rant and rave about everything.

******

The tour had taken them less time than Kira had thought, especially with a ship this size, and she hoped, that Odo had been able to get the info that they needed on the empire. The group was now headed to the dinning hall, where they would meet this Lord Vader for the first time. As they entered

the room, there was already three men waiting inside of it. Kira immediately recognized one of the men as Admiral Ozzel. The other two men wore the same gray uniforms, with the bars under their right shoulders. They were both tall, and very distinguished looking. Piett led them over to the others. Admiral Ozzel was the first to greet them, as they approached. "Oh, Coronal, it is a pleasure to finally meet you in person." 

"Like wise Admiral." Kira then looked at the rest of Ozzel's group, and then began to introduce her group. "And this is my crew, Dr. Julian Bashir, Chief Miles O'Brien, Lt. Commander Worf, Ensign Nog, and Jake Sisco."

"It is a pleasure to meet all of you." Ozzel said, and he turned to the rest of his group, to which Piett had already joined. "You already know Captain Piett, next to him is General Veers our army commander, and Captain Needa the commander of the Star Destroyer Victory." The group exchanged

greetings. They then went and sat down at the dinning table.

As they sat down, several Driods came out, and began to serve them drinks. "So Admiral," Bashir started, "when do we get to meet this Lord Vader that we keep hearing about?"

Ozzel took a long stem glass from the server Driod, and took a sip. He then looked at Bashir. "Well Doctor, Lord Vader had some matters to attend to, but he will be joining us very soon." Ozzel took another sip from his glass, then spoke again. "So, tell me about this Federation of yours, it

sounds very fascinating." 

O'Brien was the first to speak. "Well for one, the Federation spans over a hundred star systems, with hundreds more races as members."

"Then how do you keep the order in such a big area of space?" Needa asked.

"That is what we are for," Worf started, "we are part of the Federations defense fleet, known as Starfleet. We protect the Federations citizens from aggressive forces, as well as explore space."

"Forgive me," Veers said, "but that little ship that you were in, doesn't seem to have much armaments, one would think that with a area of space as large as you state, they would have bigger ships to come to it's defense."

"Actually," Nog stated, "the runabout, is only a transport type ship. The Federation has much larger ships at their disposal. For instance, we are all assigned to a space station, that has a bigger ship stationed there at all times, called the Defiant. And I can assure you General, that ship, though only half the size of this one, could turn any of your ships into space dust, before you could even fire off a shot." Nog then noticed that everyone was looking at him, and he realized that he had shown disrespect for their hosts. "My apologies, I didn't mean to say that."

"It is ok, Ensign, General Veers spoke out of place as well." Ozzel put in. 

Before another word could be said, a bell rang, and in walked a man, the reminded O'Brien of an old executioner. He then stood up, as the rest of his friends did, and the man sat down, as did everyone else. O'Brien could hear deep breathing, and as the man spoke, O'Brien new that there was an implant in his head that allowed him to talk to others through a computer on his chest. "Welcome, I am Darth Vader, the lesson from the empire. Admiral Ozzel, would you please introduce our guests to me?"

"At once my Lord." Ozzel introduced the runabout crew, as a Driod brought Vader some sort of device that he immediately hooked into the computer on his chest. Once done, Ozzel sat back down. O'Brien noticed that Bashir had pulled out his tricorder, and was about to run his scan. O'Brien then noticed that Vader had also seen Bashir pull out the device. O'Brien was about to tell Bashir to put it away, when the devise was ripped from his hand, and flew over the table, and into Vader's hand.

"And what would this be?" Vader asked.

Kira saw that Bashir was about to speak, and butted in before he could say anything. "It is a scanning device that we use Lord Vader. I am sure that the doctor was just trying to get some scans done."

Vader then looked right into Bashir, and asked, "What kind of scans Doctor?"

Bashir felt the sudden urge to tell Vader the entire story, but resisted the urge, and instead told him a fabricated story. "I was interested in finding out about you." Vader tilted his head a little, as if to say explain. Bashir then felt the urge again, even stronger that before, but he resisted still. "You seem to have several robotic parts on you, I was just interested, because our medical science has never been able to create artificial parts that moved as good, if not better than the original ones." Bashir then felt the urge leave him, as suddenly as it had come.

Vader just looked at him, and said "Proceed then Doctor Bashir", and the tricorder flew back over to him. Bashir took the tricorder, and walked over to Vader. Once there, he pulled the hand held scanner out of its socket on the top of the tricorder, and ran it over Vader's head. On the

Tricorders tiny screen, Bashir saw what he was expecting to see, and shut the device. "Thank you Lord Vader" he said as he returned to his chair.

"Your welcome Doctor." Vader said, as the food was brought out by the Driods.

******

At the entrance to the escape pod, Odo paused, as he watched the robot enter it. The robot then turned around, and stuck it's head out of the pod. "Will you please enter the pod, I would like to get off of this ship as soon as possible." The robot then pulled it's head back into the pod. Odo considered his options for a moment, and finally decided to just enter the pod.

As Odo entered the pod, the robot looked at him, and said, "Well it's about time." It then pushed a bottom, and the door closed, and Odo felt the sudden movement, as the pod jettisoned, and wondered what he had gotten himself into. But he also knew that he had at least 12 hours to find out, before he had to revert back to his gelatinous state, and then the cat would be out of the bag.

******

R2-D2 moved at a fast pace, to the pod that he and C-3PO would use for their escape. As he arrived, he found that the door was closed. R2 then found an access panel, and interfaced with it. The ship computer showed that the pod was already launched. Confused, R2 then accessed the ships

security tapes, and found that 3PO had entered the pod only a few minutes before, with another Driod. R2 was even more amazed to find that the other Driod looked exactly like him.

Deciding that it was better not to panic, R2 decided that it was better to go to the contingence plan that he had been programmed with should something go wrong, and headed back down the hall that he just came from.


	2. Chapters 5-8

****

Chapter 5

Kira had never been more relieved for a social event to end. Jake had gotten practically nothing on the Empire, Bashier almost gave away the plan to Vader, by trying to do the scan during dinner, and then there was Nog's little outburst at the beginning of dinner. Kira just hoped that they had

bought Odo enough time to get the info out of the computers. As they followed Captain Piett into the shuttle bay, all that Kira wanted to do was to lie down in the back of the runabout, and sleep. 

As they approached the ship, Piett turned to look at the group. "Well Coronal, I hope that you and your crew had a pleasant evening."

Kira just looked at Piett, and forced a smile. "Yes Captain, we did." Kira said as she began for the ship, then turned back to face Piett. "Oh, I almost forgot, how soon can your people help to get our ship operational again?"

"Coronal," Piett started, "my people will be able to start helping whenever you are ready to start."

Kira shot a look at O'Brien. O'Brien saw this, and told Piett, "We can start work in a few hours, just as soon as Ensign Nog and I have gotten a little sleep."

"Very well then, good night." Piett said, as he turned around, and made for the door.

******

Inside of the cramped living area of the runabout, Kira took a seat at the table, and leaned over placing her head in her hands. Jake took up a seat across from her, and the rest of the crew remained standing around the table. Kira finally looked up, "So, what did we find out?"

Bashier was the first to speak. "Well, I did confirm that we have passed into another dimension. The quantum signature of Vader is not a match for our own." Bashier paused for a moment, then continued. "I also know that he has incredible mental powers, because just after he took the tricorder

from me, I felt an almost uncontrollable urge to tell him everything about us."

Worf look confused, "How do you know that it was him?"

Bashier went on to explain. "Well, when I scanned him, I found traces of some sort of neural chemical, that the tricorder could only explain as some form of neural stimulant."

Jake looked at him. "Is it natural?"

"I can't say for sure Jake, But I am not ruling out the possibility."

There was a brief silence, then Kira broke it. "Thank you Doctor. Anyone else?"

Worf spoke up, "Their weapon systems are not as advanced as ours is, but I would still not recommend that we battle them. Even if the ship was completely operational, we would still take a lot of damage trying to fight them."

Before Kira could say anything, O'Brien spoke up, "At least we can outrun them." O'Brian could see the look of confusion on Kira's face and explained, "From what I could tell of their engines, they have not been able to make it much past warp one. But at least they do have what we need to fix the weapons, and the warp drive." O'Brien paused for a moment.

But before O'Brien could finish his sentence, Nog burst in, "If all goes well, we should have everything up and running by 1800 hours tomorrow."

Kira absorbed all of the information that she had just been given, then turned to Jake. "Jake, did you find out anything?"

"Not a thing Coronal. Or at least nothing that we didn't already know about them."

Kira took a moment to think. "Well then, we are just going to have to hope that Odo found out something in his outing. In the meantime," Kira said as she turned to O'Brien, "Chief until Odo comes back, I need for you to go over our logs, and find out just how we entered this universe." O'Brien nodded, and went into the front of the ship, with Nog in tow. The cabin then fell silent, and Kira silently asked the Profits, to guide Odo to what he needed to find.

******

Captain Piett, was on his way to his quarters to turn in for the evening, when he had gotten the call to report to Lord Vader's quarters. As he stepped through the door, he saw that Ozzel, Needa, and Veers were already in the room, standing around Lord Vader's recuperation chamber. Lord Vader was sitting in the center of the chamber, as he always did. Piett then took up a place beside Veers, and waited for Lord Vader to speak. Vader then stood up, and began to circle his chamber. "So, what did you think of our guests?" Vader asked in an almost to calm manner. 

None of them wanted to be the first to speak, but one of them had to. Just as Piett was about to open his mouth, Needa began, "My Lord, they are apparently an advanced culture. But their form of government, leaves something to be desired."

Now that the ice was broken, the others began in. "The little one was boasting about their fleet, and if we were to ever run into them, I think that we would be in trouble." Veers added.

"They could defiantly be a threat, even with that little ship of theirs, if they had just cause to go against us."

Vader considered all of this, and then turned to Piett. "Well Captain Piett, what have you to say about this, since you spent the most time with them."

"My Lord," Piett started, "They are defiantly an advanced group, their ship proves that. But the impression that I got from them, is that they are more into keeping the peace, than fighting." Piett paused for a moment, and then spoke again, "If we were to use this to our advantage, we might be able to end the rebellion once and for all."

"And just how do we do that?" Veers asked.

"That Dr. Bashier told me while I was showing them the ship, that the Federation's main cause is the exploration of space, and keeping it at peace. Now, what if we used their desire to make peace, to call a meeting with the leaders of the rebellion, and then take them all prisoner, thus ending the rebellion once and for all."

"And what would keep them from trying to undo what they have helped to do?" Needa asked.

"Simple," Piett started, "the doctor also told me about a set of rules that they must follow called the Prime Directive, which keeps them from interfering in the natural evaluation of a race, or group."

Vader considered what he had heard, and looked at the group that was around his chamber. "I must consult with the emperor, before we do anything. In the mean time, be sure to remind the matenance workers, that they are to give their full support to the repair of their ship, and to any other needs that they may have." And with that, the chamber closed, and the group was left alone.

****

Chapter 6

On the escape pod, Odo continued to watch the robot as he looked out of the small viewport. Even though he didn't know how long it had been since they had left the Star Destroyer, he did know that he had to soon revert back to his gelatinous state to regenerate.

"Well it is about time." The robot said. Curious, Odo moved over to the window, and looked out, and saw what appeared to be a flying junk pile. But as he continued to look, he saw that it was in fact a ship. It was large, with a sort of miss shaped like the saucer section of the Intrepid Class ships, only at the tip, it went into a small gap, and off to he side, was what appeared to be some sort of observation port. And on top, was a dish of some sort. Odo also noticed that the ship had some guns mounted on it, as it settled over top of the pod.

As if being grabbed by a giant hand, the pod lurched, and began to move upwards, and as he watched, it entered the ship, and the light dimmed out. There was then a loud clang, and then silence. The robot began to get up, as footsteps began to sound outside. The footsteps ended just outside of the pod, and the door began to open. 

Outside of the pod hatch, stood a man that looked like he was a little ruff around the edges. He wore a white shirt, with what appeared to be a leather pullover jacket, and also appeared to be wearing leather slacks, with what looked like a large mean looking gun strapped to his right leg. "Well, it is about time you two got here, we are late as it is." The man said, as the robot left the pod. Odo then followed, and as he left it, he saw standing behind the man, a large creature, covered completely in fir, and had a sash over its shoulder that reminded him of Worf.

The man then turned to the creature, "Chewy, contact the base and tell him that we have the Driods, and that we are headed for the rodeviou point." Chewy responded in what sounded like a yelp of pain, and left the bay. The Driod, walked up to the man, and tapped him on the shoulder. The man looked back at the Driod, "Yes 3PO?" 

"Captain Solo," 3PO Began, "might I ask, when we will be arriving with the rest of the rebellion?"

Solo just looked at 3PO, "Be my guest.", and left the bay. 3PO just shook his head, and followed him out. Odo then took this as his chance, and returned to his humanoid state. He then walked over to the nearest computer console, and looked it over.

While looking it over, Odo did not notice that 3PO was walking back into the room. "Some humans are just so impossible, to" and he stopped in mid phrase, as Odo looked at him. 3PO just looked at him, and then yelled, "Captain Solo, come in here quick". And as Solo rushed into the room, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Odo. Solo quickly drew his gun, and pointed it at Odo, who in turn, quick as lightning, through his arms out, and smacked the gun out of Solo's hand.

At the same time Chewy walked into the room, and rushed Odo, knocking him over. Odo quickly reverted back to his gelatinous state, and got out from under Chewy, reforming into humanoid form on top of him. Unfortunately, Odo had not seen Solo run over and grab his gun, and before he knew what had happened, had the chamber rammed up against his head. Odo decided that it would be best to get up, and did so. 

"Now, who the hell are you?" Solo asked.

Odo considered his answers, and decided that the truth was the best course of action. "My name is Odo, I am the Security chief for the space station Deep Space Nine."

3PO then walked up just behind Captain Solo. "Captain Solo" 3PO started in almost a whisper, "I have no knowledge of a station called Deep Space Nine."

"That's because it does not exist in this dimension" Odo blurted out before Solo could talk. Odo then continue, "I come to this universe in a small ship, with several others, who are on the Star Destroyer, manning our damaged ship." Odo then went on to tell about who he was, and why they were there. He also explained why he had assumed the form of the Driod R2-D2, and how he had come to this ship. Solo's expression was unchanged, and unreadable, as for Chewy, Odo could not tell if he had gotten through to him or not, and of course, 3PO's Driod face made it impossible to tell.

Solo just sat there for a moment when Odo had finished his story, and considered it. He finally got up, and walked over to Odo, and he stood up. "Look," Solo began, "I have no proof to anything that you have told me, except for the fact, that 3PO did hear about a strange ship while he was on the Star Destroyer. So, I am going to take you to Ord Mantel, where I am supposed to meet up with my friends." Solo turned to Chewy, "Chewy keep an eye on him." Chewy grunted, and Solo left, with 3PO in tow.

******

On the small bridge of the ship, Solo had taken a seat in the pilot's chair, while 3PO had taken the one behind him. After a moment of silence, 3PO finally spoke up, "Captain Solo, I had no idea that I had found that shape shifter, instead of R2."

"Don't worry about it Golden Rod, there was no way for you to know that that creature was not R2. Besides, what I would really like to know, is what happened to the real R2, he had some valuable info about the Empire, that the Rebellion could use." 3PO just nodded, and fell silent. He had been through a lot with R2, and secretly hoped that he and his friend would go through a lot more together. And watched as the Millennium Falcon entered Hyperspace.

****

Chapter 7

The door closed behind Ozzel as he entered his quarters. He immediately stripped out of his uniform, and went into the bathroom to take a shower. While in there, Ozzel did not hear a door on the opposite side of his quarters open, and a small Astromech driod rolled into the room. After stepping out of the shower, and putting on an off duty uniform, Ozzel entered the room, and saw the driod just sitting there. Ozzel looked at the small driod for a moment, "What are you still doing here, you and your counterpart where supposed to be gone over two hours ago."

R2 only beeped something, and leaned over. A beam of light emerged from his head, and a holographic image appeared in front of Ozzel. Immediately, he recognized the image as Luke Skywalker, the young man that had shot the torpedoes that had destroyed the massive Death Star, and was now the leader of the indestructible Rogue Squadron. R2 continued to play the message. "Admiral Ozzel," Skywalker began, "if you are seeing this message, then something has gone wrong with the mission that I have sent this driod on." That much was certain, Ozzel thought, as the recording continued, "So now, it is up to you, to see that this driod can get to the Alliance in one piece." Skywalker paused for a moment and then continued. "As you well know, with both Kasan Moor, and Crix Madine on our side now, we have more of a chance then ever to fight the Empire, and win. This R2 unit contains in it, a complete record of all the military operations in the sector that

Rogue Squadron is currently working in. And it is up to you to make sure that this info gets to us. We are counting on you Admiral, and May the Force be with you."

The image of Skywalker disappeared, and Ozzel took a seat in the nearest chair. He sat back, and thought about how all of this started. He remembered that it was just before the first Death Star went operational, and he was in command of the Star Destroyer Devastator. They had just chased down a Corelian Corvette, and were now over the planet Tatooine, when they had finally caught up with it, and captured it. Lord Vader had gone aboard, and had captured Princess Leia Organa, the daughter of his good friend Senator Bail Organa. Ozzel could not understand why Leia or her father had joined the rebellion, so the first chance that he had, he visited her in her detention cell, and talked to her. Ozzel remembered the look of hate in her eyes, as she asked him, "Why do you continue to serve this corrupted government?" he could not give her an answer then, and he could still not give her a good one. Shortly after that, the Death Star became operational, and had destroyed the planet Alderaan. Ozzel could not understand why that had to have happened. Then only a few days later, he had heard that the Death Star was destroyed by the Rebellion. It was at that moment, that he decided to help the rebellion from the inside. Before he had defected, Crix Madine had begged Ozzel to join him, but he had refused, saying that he could be of more help here getting information, and planning bad missions than fighting on the outside, planning raids, and hit and run missions. Madine understood, and wished him good luck, before he headed for Corellia to meet up with the Alliance. He then remembered how he had helped Kasan Moor to join the rebellion, by sending in the 128th Interceptor Squadron to Gerrard V, against the Rogues, where she surrendered to Madine.

His thoughts were interrupted, when he felt something hit his leg, and looked down to see R2 right in front of him. "Well my little friend," Ozzel said out loud, "what have I gotten myself into?"

******

She looked over to the sensor operator for what felt like the twentieth time in the last hour. The officer just looked back at her, and nodded 'no'. 'They were an hour late getting back', thought Princess Leia Organa, as she turned back to the viewport that overlooked Ord Mantel. Ord Mantel was a mining establishment that had secretly supplied the rebellion with supplies. The planet now served as the temporary base of operations for the Rebellion, until they could find a more permanent replacement for the Yavin IV base, which they had lost after the battle with the Death Star.

She heard a pinging noise coming from the sensor control board, and walked as gracefully, but also as fast as she could. As she walked up, Leia saw that there were nine blips on the screen. She looked at the office, and he confirmed what she had already suspected, "It's Rogue Squadron Princess".

Leia breathed a sigh of relief. "Is Wedge with them?" Leia asked, betraying just a hint of anticipation at the news. Wedge Antilles, one of Rogue Squads best pilots, had been captured while the squad was doing a bombing of the Empirial base on Kile II. He was taken to the mining prison of Kessel, where the rest of Rogue Squadron went to in order to free him. 

The Comm officer spoke up, "Lt. Antilles is in his X-Wing, and General Madine reports that they have at least 80 other freed rebel pilots and solders in the two shuttles." With that the command room lit up with the cheers of all the people in it.

With a clear scene of relief in her voice, Leia gave the command, "Then open the door, and let our boys dock". She walked to the viewport that looked into the hanger, and watched as the doors opened, and through them came seven X-Wings, and two transport shuttles. After all the craft was in, the doors closed, and Leia headed down to the hanger, to welcome back the Rogue's personally.

******

In the Hanger, it was a giant party. All of the Rogues were helping the former Kessel prisoners out of the Shuttles. The doors to the hanger opened up, and into it rush the Medtechs and Medical Driods, followed by Princess Leia and then General Rieekan, the overall commander of the Rebel

Forces military branch. Leia rushed over to Wedge, and embarrassed him in a huge hug.

"Well, if I knew that this was going to be the reaction I would get by being captured, I would have done it a long time ago." Wedge said jokingly, as the let go of each other. Leia just looked at him, and smiled. Another Rogue pilot then joined them. He stood about 5'4, with light blond hair, and had a device hanging from his belt. "Luke, I have to admit it now, you are the best."

Leia had to laugh. Ever since the Death Star, Wedge and Luke had had sort of a competition over who was the best pilot in the squadron. Which was understandable, since they were only two of three survivors of that battle. "Good Wedge," Luke said "now put it in holo, that you said that, and we will make it official" They all had a laugh over that. Luke then got a serious look on his face, as he turned his attention to Leia. "Any word from Han?" 

Leia looked at him, and Shook her head "No, and they are several hours over dew."

Luke could see the hurt in her eyes. Ever since he had help to save her on the Death Star, he had felt some sort of connection to Leia, and he knew that she felt it to. But Luke was not sure if it was just the force, or something else. "I am sure, that they will be here soon." A grin then formed over Luke's face "You know how Han likes to make an entrance."

******

The Ax Pick was one of the more popular taverns on Ord Mantel, and now was no exception to that. The bar had never been busier than right now. That is until the door opened, and everyone saw who had just waked into it. As it walked, there was a metallic clank and the sound of parts moving. The crowd parted, as the figure walked up to the bar. The bar tender began to shake uncontrollably, as it stopped in front of him. "Mmmay Iiii hhelp yyyou sssir?"

The Driod that stood in front of him, in a metallic voice, just said, "I AM BOUNTY HUNTER UNIT IG-88, I AM LOOKING FOR HAN SOLO. I HAVE HEARD THAT HE IS IN THIS SECTOR, TELL ME WHERE HE IS NOW.

"Iiiii dddon't kkknow wwwwhere hhe is, Iii haven't seen him in a while." The bar tender stammered out.

From behind, someone spoke up, "He is on this planet."

IG-88, spun his head around to look back, and a figure came out of the crowd. The rest of IG-88's body spun around, and it walked up to the man. The man raised a blaster, and pointed it at the driod. "But Solo is mine" 

IG-88 Just looked at the bounty hunter, "AH YOU ARE MIN CORENS. YOU ARE OUTMATCHED BY ME. SURRENDER NOW, AND LOOK FOR ANOTHER BOUNTY."

Min just looked at the driod, "Make me you walking tin can." and pulled the trigger on his blaster. A bolt came out of the blaster, right at IG-88. But the driod moved out of the way, and brought its own guns up to bear, and fired three shots. The first shot hit the blaster in Min's hand knocking the blaster out of it. The second hit him in the stomach, and the third, right between the eyes. And Min Corens dropped to the floor dead.

IG-88 replaced the blaster in its holster, and proceeded to leave the Ax Pick, stepping over the fallen dead bounty hunters body as he exited.

******

On the Bridge of the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo sat in his pilots seat, with Chewbacca beside him, 3PO right behind him, and the strange alien shape-shifter Odo sitting right behind Chewy. "Ok Chewy, lets get ready to leave hyperspace." The Wookie just grunted, and reached over for a small

lever next to his co-pilots station.

As Chewy pulled the lever, Odo could hear the engines powering down, and watched as the view outside the ship turned back into real space again. Right over top of a planet. The ship then angled down, and entered the atmosphere.

After clearing the atmosphere, the ship approached a group of mountains. Han tapped a few buttons, and then spoke, "This is the Millennium Falcon, to Rebel base. Request permission to land"

A few moments later, and a response came over the speakers. "Millennium Falcon, this is Rebel base, you are clear to land. We are opening the doors right now."

"Achnoleged, Falcon out." Han then turned to Chewy. "Ok Chewy, lets take her in."

The Wookie grunted, and Odo thought that he could actually make scene of some of it this time. He figured that his Universal Translator was beginning to understand what the creature was saying. Just then they entered into a hanger, and the ship set down, and powered down.

******

Leia and Luke waited for the Falcon to finish its landing cycle, and then entered the hanger. As they approached the Falcon, the entrance ramp began to lower, and Han Solo started to walk down it. He was followed by Chewy, and then by 3PO. Luke expected to see R2 follow them out, but instead a strange looking alien walked down the ramp. Out of instinct, Luke reach for his blaster, but could only find his fathers old Light Saber. As he pulled it up, Han came over and laid a hand on Luke's arm. "Don't worry kid, I think that he is on our side."

Luke just looked at his friend, "You think?" And then watched as the alien walked towards them. Han took his hand away from Luke's wrist. The alien stopped just in front of them, and Luke kept his light saber ready just in case.

"Greetings," the alien said, extending a hand, "I am Constable Odo, Chief security officer of the federation space station, Deep Space Nine." 

Leia just looked at him, as if studying him, and then finally spoke, "I am Princess Leia Organa," she the indicated Luke, who was clipping his light saber back on his belt, "and this is Luke Skywalker, the commander of Rogue Squadron."

Luke then turned to Han. "Where is R2 Han?" Luke asked. It was obvious that he was more than curios about the location of his flight partner, and friend.

Han just looked at Luke for a moment, and finally spoke "I wish that I knew kid." Han then went into detail about how they had picked up 3PO, and R2, only to find a few minutes later that they had Odo instead of R2. Han finished his story, "And since we first found him, he has not caused any

problems."

Odo just looked at Han, and muttered, "And why would I?". He then looked back at Leia and Luke. "I may be a security officer, but that does not mean that I fight, when I don't have to."

Leia looked at Han, then Luke, and then back at Odo. "You say that you are from a space station Odo, but I have never heard of one called Deep Space Nine before."

"It is a long story" Odo muttered, "But I will have to wait."

Luke was the first to ask, "Why?"

Odo looked at the pilot. "Because Commander Skywalker, I have to return to my original state every 16 hours to regenerate." Odo looked around, and then continued, "My people live in a gelatinous state. And it is because of that that we can change our shapes at will. That is how I ended

up here."

Chewy roared out a reply that sounded something like "So we Gathered"

"Is there a place that I can revert?" Odo Asked, ignoring the Wookie's remark.

Leia gestured to 3PO. "3PO will show you to a room in the base."

"It would be my pleasure to do so Princess." 3PO answered, and lead Odo to the doors, continuing his pointless jabbering. 

When they closed, Leia turned to the others. "So, what do you think about our guest?"

Luke was the first to respond, "I think that he is telling the truth. In fact I can feel it."

"Through the force?" Leia asked.

Luke looked at her, and just nodded. "Before he died, Ben Kanobi did tell me to trust my feelings. And they say that he is trust worthy."

"What about R2?" Han asked, "He was supposed to get valuable info about this Moth Seerdon, So that Rogue Squadron could more effectively plan a strike against him."

Luke looked at Leia, who it was apparent had thought the same thing, and then back at Han, "Don't worry, I gave R2 instructions as to what to do if he was somehow left behind. So don't worry about him, after all he is very resourceful when the chips are all down." Leia and Han knew this to be

true, and Luke secretly hoped that he knew it to.

****

Chapter 8

R2-D2, felt different, after he had given Ozzel the message that Luke had programmed into him, he found himself at the hands of some mechanics, that worked with the admiral in his work to help the Alliance. They had painted over R2's blue stripes, making them now a bright yellow, and had also changed his unit ID, to R5-29, and had fitted him with a non-functional restraining node.

R2, now rolling along side of Ozzel, moved towards the alien ship that had docked there the day before. R2 looked around and saw several Imperial techs working with two other people. R2, immediately recognized one as being a human, but was not too sure what race the other person was. As they approached, another person came out of the ship, this one a female. Ozzel walked up to her, with R2 in tow. "Coronal Kira, how are you repairs going?" Ozzel asked as he walked up to the lady.

Kira looked at him, "We estimate that our repairs will be finished in a few hours. We will then try to get back to our home." Kira then looked down at the driod. "And who might you be?"

R2 beeped an acknowledgement, "This is R5-29, one of our spare Astromech Driods." Ozzel indicated the driod, and continued , "Captain Piett mentioned that a few of your people showed an interest in our driod, and I thought that he might be able to give you a little insight into our Empire, as well as act as a guide when you leave this ship."

Kira stared at him, "I am afraid that we can't except this gift Admiral." 

"Oh," Ozzel stated quickly, in a lower voice, "but I insist."

Once again Kira stared at the Admiral, and began to understand, that the driod carried more than just information about the Empire. "Very well Admiral, we except your gift." She then hit the badge that she wore. "Kira to Worf."

"Worf here Coronal" Can an immediate reply.

"Can you come out here, and bring Jake and Julian with you?" Kira said.

"On our way Coronal" came the reply, and a few seconds latter, Worf came out of the Runabout, followed by Bashier, and Jake. All three of them, stood in front of Kira and Ozzel.

"Gentlemen," Kira started, "the Admiral here" she indicated Ozzel, "has given us this Driod to help us out while we are here, to act as a guide, and an expert on the Empire. Will you please get it into the Runabout, and find some way to hook it up to our computer."

Ozzel only heard an audible grown from Jake, as the three men took the Driod, and lifted it into the hatchway. As Kira was about to go over to O'Brian and Nog at the warp nacelle, Ozzel placed a hand on her shoulder. Kira turned to face him, "Coronal, is there a chance that we can meet together before you leave us, in private?"

Kira thought for a moment, and figured that it was the best way to find out why Ozzel wanted them to take the driod so badly, not to mentioned that it was a good way to find out if they had captured Odo or not, who was way overdue in his return. "Very well Admiral, I am sure that I can do that before I leave."

Ozzel smiled at the younger lady, "I will look forward to that." And walked away, and remembering something. He turned back to Kira, "Oh yes, Coronal, I almost forgot. Lord Vader would like to talk to you if at all possible."

This time Kira did not turn around, "Very well, tell him that I will try to meet with him before we leave as well." and she started a conversation with O'Brian and Nog before he could stop her again.

******

Inside the Runabout, Worf walked into the living area, followed by the little driod, and took a seat at the table. After he had sat down, Worf picked up his bat'telh , and a little device. The device lit up, and he began to run it slowly along the weapon. Jake followed behind them shortly, and sat across from Worf. He had a pad in hand, and began to work on it. The driod, rolled up to Worf, and began to whistle and beep. The Klingon stopped his work, and gave the driod one of what several had called his famous leave me alone looks, and it immediately turned and moved away.

The driod then moved over to Jake, who was immersed in what was on his pad. It came up and bumped Jake's leg a few times, but only got a slight reaction, when Jake, not even looking away from his pad, waved it away. Just then, Bashier entered the cramped quarters, and laid down on one of

the few beds that the ship had. Quickly, the driod rolled over to him, and began to whistle and beep wildly. Bashier turned over, and looked at the driod. "What do you want?" Bashier asked, with a hint of anger in his voice.

"I wish that I knew," Jake said, looking only a second away from his pad, "He has been acting like this since I go back here." The driod began to beep and whistle even more, then leaned over, and emitted a hologram. All three of them watched the message, and then looked at each other.

Bashier then hit his commbadge, and spoke. "Coronal Kira, could you please come into the runabout. And bring Miles and Nog with you. There is something that I think that you might want to see."

******

Ozzel walked down the corridor, and finally came to his destination, the ships Galley. Once inside, he saw one of the most promising Tie Fighter pilots that he had ever had the privilege of knowing, And not to mention, one of the newest members of his inside rebellion movement, Tycho Celchu. He walked over to Tycho's table. The pilot stood up to salute, but the admiral raised a hand, saying that it was not necessary. Tycho sat back down, and Ozzel took a seat across from him.

Tycho leaned over the table a little, and asked quietly, "Do you think that your plan will work sir? And can we trust these outsiders?" Ozzel looked at him, and realized that Tycho must have heard about what he had done the night before from one of the techs that had rebuilt Skywalker's Astromech driod.

"To be honest Tycho, I don't really know right now, but I have talked to them, and they do seem to be trustworthy. Especially their leader, I got the feeling when I met her that she used to be a member of a rebellion as well." Ozzel said just looking in the eyes of the Tie pilot. Tycho in turn nodded his head, and took a bite from the sandwich that he was eating.

After swallowing the bite, Tycho looked at the Admiral again, and Ozzel knew what he was going to say, just as he knew what she was going to say when Kasan Moor had told him that she thought that she could do more good working with the main Rebellion, than working with the inside movement. But before Tycho could say anything, Ozzel raised a hand, "You don't have to say anything Tycho, I understand, that you must leave our little band, to join the main group." Tycho looked at him, surprise in his eyes, and then smiled.

"When would be the best time for me to leave Admiral?"

"Perhaps sooner than you think. I have left instructions with the driod that I wish to meet secretly with them in private before they leave. If all goes as planned, I can have you join them. The driod has the location of the Alliance base, and with some luck, they will be there in no time." The conversation was interrupted by a voice over the intercom. 

"Bridge to Admiral Ozzel."

Tycho reached for the com button, and pushed it. "This is Lt. Celchu. The Admiral is with me."

The Voice came over the speaker again. "Inform the Admiral that Lord Vader wishes to know the status of our guests."

Ozzel spoke up, "Tell Lord Vader, that I will meet with him shortly, after I attend to a few matters. Ozzel out" And he switched the connection off before a response could come. Ozzel then got up. "Now if you will excuse me Lt., I have to attend to my work duties." Tycho nodded, and the admiral left the room.

******

Kira knew that it had to be something important, or else the Doctor would not have insisted that she bring the Chief, and Nog with her. She entered the back of the Runabout, and saw that Jake, Worf, and Bashier all had the same expression on their faces, and they were all looking at the Astromech Driod that Ozzel had given them. Worf was the first to see them enter, and Julian was not far behind. "Coronal," Worf began, "We have a feeling that this driod knows what happened to Odo."

Kira's expression turned to one of hope, as she looked at the driod, who was whistling softly. She then her gaze back to Worf. "How do you know this Commander?"

Julian was the first to speak, "Just watch Coronal, and you will think the same way, after the message it over."

Kira took a seat, as the Astromech driod leaned over, and projected a holographic image, and she immediately recognized the image as Ozzel. The message then began to play: "Greetings Coronal Kira, and crew. Undoubtedly you are all watching this message together. I am sending you this under the deepest hope that you are the people that I know you to be, and will not turn me over to Lord Vader." Ozzel paused for a moment, and then continued, "This may or may not come as a surprise to you, but for some time now, there has been a Rebellion against the Empire. This driod came from the Rebellion. He was left here yesterday, when his counterpart, left with another driod that looked exactly like him. I will wait for you on deck 12, section 13, and will be there one hour after I leave this driod with you. He will guide you to the place that we will meet at. Please, come, and I will explain all to you." The image bowed its head, and then vanished. And another image appeared. It was a map of the ship, and a little red dot that indicated that it was the location that Ozzel would meet them at.

Kira turned to O'Brian, "Chief, can you get me to that location with the transporter?"

O'Brian thought about it for a moment, and finally answered, "Yeah, I believe that I can get you there."

Kira did not waist any time. "Ok, Worf and Julian will accompany me." She looked at O'Brian, "Chief, I need you and Nog to get back to work on the ship. Just in case this meeting is a trap of some kind, I want to be ready." O'Brian nodded, and they all moved back to the small bridge. Kira, Julian, and Worf all grabbed a type 1 Phaser, and tucked them into their belts, as they mounted the transporter pad. She then turned to face the others again. "Jake, keep a lock on us, just in case we need an emergency beam out." Jake nodded, and Kira faced O'Brian, who gave her a nod that meant that he was ready. Kira looked at him squarely, "Energize Chief". And she watched as O'Brian worked the controls, and the world faded out of existence. And the room that they were to meet with Ozzel

faded into existence, with them standing in some sort of cargo bay, right in front of a confused Ozzel.

******

Ozzel had only been in the bay for 5 minutes, when he heard a strange sound, and looked just in time to see three figures appear out of thin air in front of him. He quickly recognized one of them as Coronal Kira, and the other two as Commander Worf, and Doctor Bashier. Ozzel suddenly realized that his mouth was hanging wide open, and closed it. "How did you do that?", was all that he was able to mutter out.

Bashier got a huge smile on his face, "Just one of the technologies that we have, that you don't know about yet." 

Kira looked at the doctor, and then at Ozzel. "Yes, but you wished to see us Admiral"

"Yes, I did." Ozzel took a deep breath, "I am sure that you have some questions. Perhaps I can guess, and answer the first one, Why tell you about the Rebellion, and risk getting caught doing it?"

"I have to admit Admiral," Kira began, "That is the first question that I had."

Taking another deep Breath, Ozzel took a seat on a crate, and began to explain. "About 2 years ago, the Empire got wind of a small rebellion that was forming. Naturally, we did not take it to seriously, until they started to raid outposts, and cargo ships carrying supplies for Stormtroopers. we also found out rather quickly, that the rebels had possibly gained the support of the Mon Calimary ship yards. One of our top ship building facilities. Then about 7 months ago, the Rebellion won the first major battle of this war that they declared on the Empire, by stealing the plans for the Empires new battle station, called, the Death Star." An icy chill ran up Kira's back at the name, and she did not

understand why.

Ozzel continued, "We were able to track the transmission, and follow it to a Corelian Corvette, that carried the daughter of a good friend of mine, Princess Leia Organa. We had captured her, only to find out that she did not have the plans, and that she hid them in a R2 unit. The very same unit that you have on your ship at this time." Ozzel continued to tell them about how the Death Star had destroyed the Planet Alderaan, and how a young pilot named Luke Skywalker stopped the massive station practically by himself. He then went into the inner Rebellion that he had started, to help with the battle. When his story was done, he noticed that Kira was looking at him in a whole new way. Not the expression that he had gotten from her since he first talked to her, but one of new found respect. Ozzel then went on. "Right now, Lord Vader is planning to use you to trap the Alliance, and end the Rebellion." 

Bashier was the first to speak, "How?"

"I am not sure" Ozzel began, "but what I am sure of, is that it is not wise to mess with him, but I can handle Lord Vader, Right now, I need to ask you for a favor."

"What kind of favor?" Worf asked.

"As I mentioned before, there are others who help me out in my inner Rebellion. One of them, is one of our most skilled pilots, Tycho Celchu. He was a native of Alderaan, and wishes to join the main rebellion group. Can you help him?

Kira Thought it over, and finally answered, "Ok, I think that we can help," she paused for a moment, "Besides, we need to find a member of our crew, and I have a feeling, that he is with your friends in the Rebellion." 

"I thought that you had all your crew at dinner last night." Ozzel stated. 

"No," Kira began, "there is a 7th member of our crew, he is a shapeshifter, and our chief of security on the Space Station that we come from. We sent him off to try and get some information on your Empire, and he never returned. I believe that that driods counterpart must have thought that Odo was his friend, and took him with him." 

Ozzel nodded, "That sounds about right. R2 told me that when he checked the security cameras that they recorded his counterpart getting into the escape pod, with a driod that looked just like him. It very well might have been your friend, and if it was, he is either dead, or at the Rebel base. Either way, R2 will be able to lead you to him."

As Ozzel stood up, Kira tapped her commbadge, "Kira to Aries"

Jake's voice came though it, "Aries here Coronal"

Kira Looked at Ozzel. "Stand by to beam us back Jake." As Jake acknowledged Kira's signal, she turned back to Ozzel, "Admiral, tell Mr. Celchu, that we will be more than willing to take him to the rebel base."

"I will be sure to let him know, and thank you Coronal."

"It's our pleasure Admiral." Kira then tapped her badge again, "Kira to Aries, Energize" And all three of them dematerialized in front on Ozzel. He waited only a moment longer, and then left himself.


	3. Chapters 9-12

****

Chapter 9

It was only a few minutes after Kira, Worf, and Julian had returned to the Runabout, when they got a message, that Vader wanted to talk to them. The Stormtrooper that gave them the message, led them to the entrance of Vader's quarters, and stood at attention, as the door slid open. Kira moved in, Julian, who she already knew Vader could not touch with his strange power, followed her. As the two of them moved into the room, they noticed a large dome in the middle of the room, which began to open, revealing, Darth Vader sitting in the center, on a chair that sort of reminded Kira of a throne. 

"I am pleased that you excepted my invitation to speak Coronal." Vader told Kira, he then looked at Julian, who was standing right next to her, "And you as well Doctor." Vader then stepped out of the dome, and stood in front of them. He then gestured to a table off to the corner. "Please, sit, make yourselves at home." All three of them sat down in a chair, and as they sat down, Kira noticed a small device, cylindrical and completely black, with a few buttons on it hanging from Vader's belt. But there was something else, the device almost looked like it was the handle to something. "Now, I am sure that you have some questions," Vader said, breaking Kira's thought, "And I thought that we did not answer enough of your questions last night at dinner."

Julian could not resist the opportunity that was before him, "Very well then," he began, looking Vader squarely in the helmet's eye pieces, "How did you do that little trick last night, with my tricorder?"

Vader looked back at him. "I used the Force to bring your device to me." 

Julian looked at him, obviously confused, "The Force?"

"Yes," Vader began, "The Force is an energy field that is created by life itself. Certain people are born with the ability to tap into this energy field." Julian leaned forward on to the table, fascinated by what Vader was saying, "When the Force was first discovered, it was found that those who could tap into its power, could attain great abilities." 

"Namely?" Kira asked interested in the conversation as well.

"Our powers range anywhere from the ability to heal other, to levitation, which you saw last night, basic mind control, and enhanced reflexes and insight." Vader continued to tell Kira and Julian about the Force, and its vireos uses. After they finished talking about the Force, Vader told them about the Empire, and about the Rebellion. Not the same story that they had heard from Ozzel only a short time ago, but a version that would make anyone that had not already learned the true version of the story, make them outraged at the Rebellion for all that they did to the Empire. Then came the part that Kira and Julian had been waiting to hear. "I would like to ask something of you." When they nodded he continued, "This Rebellion is pointless. and I ask your help to end it once and for all."

Kira looked at him, "And what would you like for us to do?"

"All that I ask is that you help us to set up a meeting with the Rebel leadership, so that we may be able to end this pointless war, and bring peace to the galaxy."

Kira's face showed an expression of thought on it, and then she looked right at Vader, hoping that these Force senses that he had told them about would not tell him that she was lying to him. "Of course Lord Vader, we would be more than happy to help you out in any way that we can."

Vader stood up, and Kira followed suit along with Bashier. "Then I thank you for your time. The Stormtrooper outside will escort you back to your ship. Have a safe trip Coronal."

"Thank you Lord Vader." Kira said, and the two of them watched Vader return to his chamber, and retake his seat as the top came down.

****

Chapter 10

Princess Leia Organa stood outside the door to the quarters of the alien that Han had brought back to the base. She knocked on it, and got no answer, and knocked again. When no answer came again, she put in a command to override the lock, and entered the room. Inside, Leia did not find in the room. But what she did see, was a pool of ooze of some sort. "Hello," Leia said out loud, "is anyone here?"

She stepped over the pool of ooze, and walked towards the refresher area. Leia then heard a noise of some sort behind her, and when she turned around, she saw the ooze take shape into a man. Once it had taken the shape, it-changed color, and standing before her was Odo. "I believe that you were looking for me" Odo said. Leia looked at him, with the expression that everyone had when the saw him transform for the first time, astonishment, mixed with a touch of fear.

"As a matter of fact yes, I was." Leia told him, letting out a touch of her astonishment. She then continued, "If you feel up to it, we would like to ask you a few questions."

Leia appeared to be about to say more, but Odo stopped her. "No need to explain, I am a security officer myself, Princess, if I am not mistaken." 

Leia smiled, and indicated a table towards that center of the room. She took a seat at one end, and Odo took one across from her. "Back in the hanger," Leia began, "you said that you would tell us the story about how you ended up on the Millennium Falcon."

Odo took a deep breath, and started to tell Leia the story about how the Aries and her crew ended up in this dimension, and how he had ended up on the Falcon. And also watched as the story began to sink into Leia, who was more than curios about the whole thing. When he finished the story, he paused for a moment, "And that is how I got here." Odo then considered what to say for a moment, "I wish that I knew what happened to your Driod Princess, but I only saw him once before I left the ship with that other driod."

Leia looked at Odo, and just nodded. "I understand that Odo, but that does not help us any." Leia paused for a moment, "R2 was supposed to get some valuable information about Empirial activities in the sector of space that we will be working in next."

Odo returned her stare, and thought for a moment. Suddenly, he remembered something from his time working with the Bajorans, and their resistance against the Cardasian Empire, during the Occupation. "Princess Leia," Odo began, "For a few years, early in my career as a security officer, I worked with members of a resistance. And it was my experience that they usually had someone that worked on the inside." Odo paused for a moment, to study the expression on Leia's face. And as he suspected, a worried look began to spread across her face. He then continued, "Now I would assume that you have and operative inside of the Empire." Leia began to open her mouth, but Odo stopped her, "You don't have to worry, I won't ask you to tell me who it is."

An expression of relief spread across Leia's face, "Thank you, for not insisting that I do that. He is an old friend of my families." 

Odo smiled at her, and continued on with his assessment. "No problem. But I take it that he is extremely resourceful." Leia nodded, and Odo continued. "Then I have a feeling, that he will make sure that your driod finds a way to get here. And I also feel that I will be united with my friends at that same time."

Leia smiled at Odo, and got up from the table, and started to walk towards the door. She stopped at the door, and turned around to face Odo, "I know that you are right about our operative, and I sincerely hope that you are correct about you friends being with our driod." Odo nodded to her slightly, and she left the room. And once he was alone, he returned to his gelatinous state, and fell into a deep sleep.

******

Han had never seen the Ax Pick closed before. But then again, there was always a first time for everything. Luckily, he knew of a well-placed back door, which he had used several times himself. He turned to Chewbacca, who was right behind him, "Chewy, wait here, I am going around to the back." Chewy grunted his acknowledgement, and took up a position right beside the door.

Han walked around to the back of the bar, and found what he was looking for, a pile of what appeared to be nothing more than junk, and opened a small hidden panel. He pushed in a sequence of buttons, and closed the panel. Almost immediately, the pile began to rise up, reviling a stairway under it. As he walked down the stairs, he noticed that there was a light in the tunnel at the bottom.

Once he got to the bottom, Han saw that the light was coming from a Glow Rod that was hanging from the ceiling, and that there was now a cot set up in the tunnel. As Han moved in closer to investigate, he heard a sound from further down the tunnel, and then out of it walked the owner of the Ax Pick, Jason Lambers, one of the oldest and most trustworthy friends that Han had, or so he thought anyway, because as soon as Jason saw him, he drew out a blaster, and aimed it right at Han's head. Han raised his hands, in surrender, "Hey Jason, don't shoot, it's only me, Han Solo."

"Why do you think that I am aiming this at you Han?" Jason asked.

Han looked at Jason, "And just what do you mean by that Jason?" He asked, more than a little curios of the answer. 

Jason just looked him square in the eyes, and asked Han, "Does the ID number IG-88 mean anything to you Solo?"

Han thought for a moment, and it hit him, "You mean the Bounty Driod?" Jason nodded his head, and then Han realized what was going on, "Jaba's bounty on me. And I bet that IG-88 paid you a little visit."

Han thought back, to just before the battle at Yavin, when he was smuggling a load of spice to from Kessel to Tatooine, for the gangster Jaba the Hut. On rout you Tatooine, the Imperials somehow got wind of what he was up to, possibly from that slimy toad Moreth Dule, who ran the spice smuggling operation out of Kessel, and was forced to drop his entire load. Needless to say, Jaba was not to happy and told Han that he had to repay him or else. Right after that, he and Chewy had gotten a job that would help him to pay off his debt to Jaba, and make a little extra on the side, and all that he had to do was to transport a wide eyed kid, a crazy old man, and two driods to the planet Alderaan. He was able to get Jaba to give him an extension of the deadline for the payment, with the treat that if he did not fulfill his end of the bargain, Jaba would put a price on Hans head so big, that he would not be able to go to show his face in any inhabited system again.

But what Han had never expected, was that that charter flight to Alderaan would change his life forever. That was the first time that he had met Luke Skywalker, Ben Kanobi, the driods R2-D2, and C-3P0, and Leia Organa. And he still could not understand why he did not take his money and head straight back to Jaba to pay him off, instead of flying strait to the battle with the Death Star, nailing two Tie Fighters, and crippling one, saving Luke's life, and allowing him to make that historic shot that destroyed the Death Star once and for all. He had then decided to join up with the Rebellion, and has been with them ever since. 

Han's thoughts were interrupted, by Jason, "You had better believe that it did, and he blew away Min Corens who was also on your tail." Jason informed Han, "I never saw this place clear out so fast, and I lost one of my best bartenders, who quit almost right after that damn driod left." Jason paused for a moment, and then asked Han, "So you tell me, why I should not blow you away myself, for what you have done to me and my business, and collecting that reward that Jaba is asking for you myself."

Han looked right at Jason, "I can give you several reasons why." Han took a deep breath. "First, Chewy is right outside of this building, do you really think that you could sneak my body past him," Jason nodded, and Han continued, "Second, even if you were able to get past Chewy, once word got out that you had killed Han Solo, you would be the target of every bounty hunter in the galaxy." Han paused, letting that reason sink in, "And finally, the third reason. You forgot that I gave you that blaster, and I know that it does not work, because you explicitly asked me for just that, so that you could scare people, and not hurt them." Taking another deep breath, Han smiled, "Do those reasons satisfy you?" 

Jason thought for a moment, and then lowered the blaster, and through it on the cot. He then looked back up at his friend, "I am sorry about that Han, but I did not know what else to do."

Han just smiled back at Jason, "Apology excepted, now, if you don't mind, I would like to get those supplies that you were supposed to get for us." 

Jason returned Hans smile, and the two men, after letting Chewy in, went to the storeroom and went to work getting everything out onto Han's hovercar.

******

Bounty Hunter unit, IG-88, stood on top of the roof, right across from the Ax Pick. It was there, that it saw the Wookie known as Chewboka, who always flew with Han Solo. After a few minutes, the Wookie was let inside, and a mere moments later, it finally saw it's prey, Han Solo, exit from the tavern, with a box full of supplies, being followed out by the bars owner, and the Wookie, both of which were carrying large boxes as well.

The driod was about to jump down to the street and claim it's prize, when an indicator light went off, indicating that it needed to shut down in order to recharge it's batteries. 'Maybe', it thought, 'I still have enough power to capture Han Solo, and his Wookie.' As it debated this, the hover car lifted up on its repulsers, and drove away. IG-88 then vowed, 'another time, Captain Solo', and deactivated it's self, in order to recharge.

******

The hanger of the Emperors Pride was quiet for once, with the exception of those officers that were assembled to see the Aries off, including, Admiral Ozzel, Captain Piett, and General Veers, and a man that they had never met before, that Kira knew had to be Tycho Celchu. Captain Piett, walked up to Kira, and extended his hand. "It was a pleasure to meet you Coronal Kira, I hope that we will meet again."

"We look forward to it Captain Piett." Kira said. Ozzel and Tycho waked over to them.

"Coronal Kira," Ozzel began, indicating Tycho, "May I present Tycho Celchu. As requested, he will be your guide until you find a way to return to" Ozzel paused considering his next statement, "wherever it is that you came from."

Tycho looked at Kira, "It will be a pleasure to represent the Empire in this endeavor." He then extended his hand, and Kira took it.

"Well," Kira started, "Let get on board.", and turned to board the ship. Tycho followed her, and as they both entered the ship, the hatch closed.

******

The air lock closed behind Tycho, as he entered the ship, and he then followed Kira into a cramped command area. It was there that he immediately saw the Astromech driod, R2-D2, standing in the middle of the room. He then took a look around the room, and immediately came to the conclusion that this was a more advanced race than he had been told. Kira then took a seat in what appeared to be the pilots seat, and turned it to face the viewport. 

A little alien that had big ears, walked out from behind. "Lt. Celchu," the little alien said to Tycho, "if you will please take a seat, until we get underway." As he said this, the alien indicated a seat that had been set up in the corner. The Alien then took a seat at one of the consoles, while Tycho immediately sat down in the seat, and started to listen to what was being said.

"Mr. O'Brian," Kira said, "has the bay master given us clearance to take off."

"Affirmative Coronal," the man in the co-pilots seat said, "Beginning launch sequence now."

Kira then turned to face another alien that sat behind her. "Mr. Worf, weapons status."

Worf worked his controls, "Phasers are at 90%, Photons, are operational, but automatic targeting systems are still off line."

O'Brian looked up from his controls for a moment, and leaned back, "Just like that time on the Defiant, when we were stuck in that nebula with two Jemadar ships." That got a slight chuckle from the rest of the crew, including Kira, who shook her head as she did do.

She then turned to face the other side of the ship, "Doctor, Nog, how about sensors and communications?"

The human, looked at his board, and reported, "Short range scanners are operational, same with long range."

Nog then answered, "Communications are at 100%. Both ship to ship, and subspace."

"Very good." Kira said, and then turned back to the front of the ship, and her console. "Mr. O'Brian, take us out, and after that, take us to warp 4, until we are out of the Emperors Pride's sights, and then take us out of warp."

"Yes Sir," O'Brian said, as the ship moved out of the hanger, and off into space.

******

The Hand watched, from the cockpit of her modified Tie Interceptor, as the strange alien ship left the hanger of the Emperors Pride, and went into hyperspace, or so she thought. She brought up her nava-computer, and tried to figure out were they were going to. She knew that they would fly out of range of the Super Star Destroyers sensors, and then come out of hyperspace. But the trick was figuring out exactly where that was. 

The Hand reached out with the Force, searching though space, until she found them, about 3 light-years way, in an almost dead stop. She then made the calculation for the jump into hyperspace to catch up with them. Once that was done, she brought her engines on line, and pulled the lever that

would take her into hyperspace.

****

Chapter 11

Luke Skywalker was running late. He had been practicing with his lightsaber in the hanger, and had lost track of time. He was now sprinting to the briefing room. As he got to the door, Luke stopped to compose himself for a second, and then walked up to the door, which opened to reveal all of Rogue Squadron, looking in his direction. Luke entered, and saw that the leader of the Rebel Alliance herself, Mom Mothma was in the room, for the briefing. Sitting next to her, was the Mon Calimarian, Admiral Ackbar, and General Crix Madine. Madine looked at Luke, an amused expression on his face, "Commander Skywalker, you are late." 

Luke thought that he heard a light chuckle come from Dack Ralter, Rogue Squads youngest, and greenest pilot. He threw Dack a look, and he immediately stopped, and returned his attention to the front of the room. "Sorry General, but I was in the middle of some practicing, and lost track of time." Mom Mothma, nodded to Luke and he took a seat next to Wes Janson, one of the finest gunners that Luke he had ever had the privilege of serving with.

General Madine, stood up, and walked over to the display screen. "Unfortunately, our little excursion against Moth Seerdon, is put on indefinite hold, until we can find Skywalker's Astromech, and get the info that we need." There were a number of audible groans of disappointment, from most of the Rogues, most notably, from Kasan Moor, who considered Seerdon a mentor, until she found out that he was more ruthless than the Emperor. Madine continued the briefing, "Instead, Rogue Squadron is going to be sent on a reckon mission to the Endor system." Madine paused for a moment, then indicated Ackbar.

Admiral Ackbar, stood up, and took Madine's place in front of the Rogues. "Bothan slicers, have discovered that the empire has began construction of some sort of massive project." Ackbar took a deep breath, "Rogue Squadron will be assigned to the newly built Home One, which shall act as Alliances new flag ship." Ackbar took another deep breath, "There has been some rumors flying around, that the Empire is attempting to construct a new Death Star." Taking another deep breath, "We believe that they are using Endor, in order to keep it quiet." Ackbar took another deep breath, and before he could continue his briefing, the door opened, and Leia walked into the room, with a look of urgency on her face. 

Mom Mothma stood up, "What is it Leia?", the older woman asked, as Leia moved up to the front of the room. 

"I have some urgent news," Leia began, as she got to the front of the room, "Our scanner satellites, have picked up a ship that has just come out of hyperspace, on the outskirts of this system." Leia looked around to make sure that everyone was following her, "When we sent out a scout ship from the furthest moon, the description that the pilot gave, matched the one that Odo gave to us for the ship that he came from." Leia paused for a moment, then continued. "They then contacted us, and transmitted a code, that only one being has."

Genuinely interested, Wedge Antilles, asked, "And who is that being" 

Leia began to open her mouth to respond, but Luke said it first, "R2-D2."

Leia smiled, "Correct Luke, they are bringing R2 back to us."

******

Miles O'Brian, worked his controls, and brought the Aries out of warp, and to a full stop. "All stop Coronal", he then reported to Kira.

Kira then turned around, and looked a Tycho, "Lt. Celchu, how do we access the info in this driod now."

Tycho stood up, and walked over to R2. "R2-D2, recognize voice command, Ozzel 2275." The driod beeped, in acknowledgement, and Tycho continued, "Project a holo of the location of the Alliance base that you are to go to." A light emerged from R2's dome head, and a projection of a star system appeared. Tycho looked at the projection, and reached out to touch a part of it. "This is our destination, it is a planet known as Ord Mantel." Tycho studied the projection, and then pointed out a few other spots on the map, "These must be check points, no doubt they have snub fighters set up there to slow down any enemy ships that may happen upon them." 

"Then how do we get past them," Jake asked.

Tycho thought for a moment, and then turned back to R2. "R2, do you have your own clearance code." The image disappeared, and in its place, appeared the word 'Yes'. "Good," Tycho said, "It is as I thought," he turned back to the rest of the group, "This Astromech, belongs to the Alliances most celebrated hero, Luke Skywalker. And in his own right, R2 here is a hero to."

Julian, nodded in understanding, "And because of that, they gave this driod its own code, in case something like this ever happened."

"Correct Doctor," Tycho said, "and that code is our ticket to getting past the Alliance check points."

Kira thought this over, and then decided, "Ok, Lt. Celchu, can you give Chief O'Brian the coordinates to Ord Mantel?" Tycho nodded, "Good," She tuned to O'Brian, "Chief, as soon as you get the coordinates, lay in a course, and engage at the ships maximum speed."

O'Brian nodded, "Ewe Coronal" And set to work at his console, with Tycho standing right behind him.

Kira then turned her attention to Worf, "Worf, have Phasers standing by, just in case."

Worf nodded, and set to work. O'Brian then called from his console, "Ready Coronal".

Kira nodded, and took her seat next to him. "Ok Chief, lets get going." O'Brian nodded, and pushed the buttons to take the craft into warp.

******

The Hand entered the system, just as the runabout warped off. Cursing a little, she once again reached out with the Force, and began to search for them. After a few minutes, she finally found the ship, and immediately entered the information into the nava-computer. She then pushed a button that would record a message, "This is Empirial intelligence officer, code number 332102. This message is to only be played for Lord Vader." The Hand took a deep breath, and continued, "I have tracked the ship to about three light years from the position that the Emperors Pride was in when the two ships parted. And now they are headed on a course that will possibly take it to the outer rim territories. I am attempting to pursue them at his time. I will leave more messages as I follow them." The Hand deactivated the recorder, and played the message. She nodded, and then transmitted it to the Emperors Pride. After the message was sent, she reached for the lever that would take her to Hyperspace, and pulled it. The Tie Fighter, then jumped into hyperspace, in pursuit of the Runabout.

******

Tycho Celchu had never seen such a sight before. As he watched, the crewman that he had learned was named Jake, walk up to a small hole in the wall, "Computer, Orange Juice.", and a glass appeared out of thin air, with an orange liquid in it. Jake took a sip of the liquid, and then noticed

that Tycho was watching him. "Do you want something Lt. Celchu?" he asked.

Tycho stood up, and walked over to the hole. "What is it?"

Jake looked at him, and then realized why Tycho had asked that question. He took a deep breath, "This is a food replicator. So long as what you want is on record, this device will be able to produce it."

Tycho had never heard of such a thing, but decided to try it out anyway. He looked at Jake, "I doubt that any of the food that I am used to are in the computers memory banks. Can you give me a suggestion on what to order?"

Jake smiled, and then turned to the replicator. "Computer, Sisco's Cajun Jambalaya, with a glass of water." Jake could have sworn that he had heard Nog chuckle a little bit from his seat, as a bowl of steaming hot jambalaya appeared, with a glass of water next to it. Pulling the bowl from the slot, Jake offered it to Tycho, and the pilot excepted it.

Tycho took a sniff of it, "It smells good", and took a heaping spoon full of it and put it in his mouth. He chewed it, and then swallowed. He took another spoonful, and then another, until he was finished with the entire bowl. He then took the glass of water, and drank it down slowly.

Jake stood there open mouthed, just staring at him. "How did you do that?" Jake let out, as Tycho handed him the bowl and glass back.

"What do you mean?"

"The Jambalaya," Jake told him, "nobody has ever been able to eat all of my Grandfathers Jambalaya that fast, and still sit there like you are doing. It is one of the hottest chili's in the Federation."

Tycho looked up at Jake, and started to laugh, "I take it that you don't know, that my Home planet of Alderaan, used to grow the hottest spices in the galaxy. Compared to them, your Grandfathers Jambalaya, is mild."

Jake looked as if he was about to say something, but was stopped by O'Brian, from the front of the ship. "Coming out of warp."

Kira turned around to face Tycho, "Lt. Celchu, it's your show now, what do we do." And as if by command, a small ship, that was shaped like a Y pulled out from behind an asteroid.

Kira was about to order for shields to be raised, when Tycho told them, "Take no hostile action. That is a century ship. Can you give me a Comm channel to it?"

Kira looked back at Nog, who was already working his board, "Channel open."

Tycho stood up straight, "This is Lt. Tycho Celchu, to Y-Wing, we have on board this ship, the Astromech Driod R2-D2, who I believe that you are familiar with."

A response came over the speakers immediately, "Lt. Celchu, This is Gold Squadron Leader, can you give us the special codes that this driod carries?"

"One Moment, we are going to have him give you the codes." Tycho then looked at the driod that had just come into the room. "R2, it is up to you."

R2, put out a series of beeps and whistles. When he had finished, there was a moment of silence, and then came the voice of Gold 1, "My own Astromech indicates that the code is correct. Please allow us to escort you to Ord Mantel."

"That would be appreciated Gold 1, Tycho out".

The Y-Wing then turned around, and headed off in one direction. Tycho looked at O'Brian, "There is you course heading Chief O'Brian." Tycho then went back to his seat, and sat down.

******

The Super Star Destroyer Emperors Pride, cut through space. In his private chambers, Darth Vader, looked at the hollo cube that sat in front of him. He then activated it. "This is Empirial intelligence officer, code number 332102. This message is to only be played for Lord Vader." Vader

listened to the message, and then activated his view screen. Captain Piett's image appeared on the screen, "Captain, I have just received word, that the Rebels may be hiding out in the outer rim territories. Take us there at once."

Piett stood at attention, "At once my Lord." And the screen went blank.

****

Chapter 12

Luke walked up to the door to the room that housed the strange shapeshifter, Odo. Luke knocked twice. When there was no answer, he hit a button on the control panel located next to the door. The door opened, and he entered to find that the lights were not on. Luke walked into the room slowly, stretching out with his mind as far as he could, and felt that Odo was still in the room. As he walked in, he did not feel any danger, but he still drew his lightsaber, and held it at the ready.

Reaching to the switch next to the door, he turned on the lights, and found that the room was empty. He then remembered when Leia telling him about when she had come in here earlier, and how Odo had transformed from a puddle of ooze that was on the floor. Luke once again reached out with the force, and found a hint of a presence. Suddenly Luke felt a hand on his shoulder, and he spun around, to face Odo. "Can I help you Commander Skywalker?"

Luke replaced the lightsaber on his belt clip, "Yes, you can." Luke then went on to explain about the ship, that had just entered the system. 

"That sounds like the Aries." Odo told Luke when he finished the description of the ship.

"Leia and Mom Mothma asked me to bring you to the control room to confirm if it is your ship."

"Very well", Odo told Luke, and indicated that he should lead the way. Luke walked out of the room first, with Odo on his tail. As they walked, Odo looked at the device that Luke had clipped to his belt. "Commander," Odo began, "is that some kind of weapon?" 

Luke looked at Odo, "Yeah, it is. And please call me Luke." he said, as he unclipped the lightsaber from his belt and held it up. "It is called a Lightsaber." Luke twisted it around in his hand, and then handed it to Odo. "It used to belong to my father, who was a great Jedi Knight." Seeing that Odo was about to touch the activation button, Luke put a hand out to stop him. Odo looked at Luke not understanding what he almost did, "That button activates it." Luke then stopped walking, and looked around. He then took the Lightsaber back from Odo, and pushed the activation switch. A green blade of energy emerged from the handle, and Odo could hear a light humming noise coming from it. Luke then hit the button again, and the blade vanished.

"Impressive," Odo said, "in all the years that I have been a security officer, I have never seen anything like this."

The two of them started walking again, "That's because only Jedi Knights know how to construct them."

"Interesting," Odo said, as then turned into the control room, "You will have to tell me more about this weapon and these Jedi Knights later, that is if you don't mind."

A smile spreading across his face, Luke just looked at Odo, "Of course I don't, it would be an honor." Luke paused for a moment, and saw that Leia and Mom Mothma had spotted them, and were waving them over. "But I have to warn you, I really don't know much more than what I already told you." The two of them walked up to the table that the two ladies were standing in front of, and took up a place across from them.

"Constable Odo," Leia began, "I would like for you to meet Mom Mothma, the leader of the Alliance." Odo bowed his head slightly to acknowledge her, and turned his attention back to Leia. "Luke told me that you might have spotted the Aries."

Mom Mothma, pushed a button, and a hologram appeared over the table, and Odo smiled, as he immediately recognized the holo. Mom Mothma smiled as well, "Then I can assume that this is your ship."

"Yes you can." Odo said, "Have they attempted to contact you yet?"

"Yeah," Luke began, "but none of your people contacted us." Luke paused "Instead, an Imperial Tie Fighter pilot named Tycho Celchu made first contact with our patrols. And it would also appear that they have R2 with them, because his codes were used to get past the patrols." Luke looked at

something on his board, and then looked back up. "Our escort ships should be meeting up with them right now Leia."

"Good." Leia responded.

"Escort?" Odo asked.

"Standard procedure," Leia assured him, "The Mountains in this area are tough to navigate through at times, and we want to make sure that your people don't get killed on their approach."

******

"This is Gold Leader to Aries." The voice of the Y-Wings pilot came over the speakers, "This is where we part, and a special escort takes over. Please hold your position until they arrive." 

Kira keyed the Comm button, "This is Aries, we understand, and will hold position. Thank you for the escort this far."

"Don't mention it Aires, Gold One out." The transmission cut out, and they watched as the Y-Wing turned around, and headed back to his post.

Just then, three ships came into view. All of them had a narrow section that started with a nose, and ended with 4 engines. Attached to those engines, was a set of double plated wings, with some sort of laser attached to it. There was a small window in the center of it, just large enough to see a head sticking out of it. Behind the pilot, sat an Astromech driod. Tycho walked up to the view port, and looked at the ship. "X-Wings."

"Why do they call them X-Wings? O'Brian asked

Tycho pointed out to each of the wings, "See how the wings are double plated," He saw O'Brian nod, "well, they are also known as S-Foils, or Stabilizer Foils, and in a battle, those wings split apart, to form an X shape. It makes the fighter more maneuverable in battle when they are opened, and when they are closed it gives them more speed. I always wanted to know what it was like to fly one of those things. Now I guess is my chance to find out."

Just then the Comm board lit up. Nog hit the controls, and a voice with sort of a British accent, came over it, "This is Lt. Wedge Antilles, X.O. of Rogue Squadron, to Federation Runabout Aries, do you copy?"

Kira looked at Nog, who in turn hit a button on his board. "This is Coronal Kira Nerys, to Lt. Antilles, we read you."

Wedges voice came over the speakers again. "Federation Runabout, our ships will escort you to the base. Follow me, and don't deviate from that course. Rogue's 4 and 5 will fly on either side of your ship, while I take up the lead."

"Achnoleged, Rogue X.O., we will stay with you. Aries out." Kira looked back at Nog, and he cut the transmission.

"Well, I will be damned," Tycho said, as soon as the transmission was cut, "Wedge Antilles." Tycho could see that the others clearly did not understand, "Wedge Antilles is one of the three survivors of the Death Star battle that I am sure that the Admiral told you about. It does not surprise me that he is a member of Rogue Squadron." 

"Why is that?" Asked Nog.

Tycho considered what he was going to tell them for a minute, "Well Ensign Nog, Rogue Squadron was only formed a few months back, but they already have a reputation that rivals the oldest Squadrons out there." Tycho paused, searching for the right words, "They are literally the best of the

best. And from what I've heard, and from what I have heard, they specialize in the missions that no other squadron can do." Tycho then looked out the viewport again, and watched, as the Runabout entered the planet's atmosphere.

******

The modified Tie Interceptor, reverted back to normal space, a few seconds before the timer hit zero. The Hand did not need to user her abilities in the Force, to know that if the Federation was making contact with the Rebels, that she would come upon a patrol or two. As it was, she came out

of hyperspace, just behind a moon. It was there that she saw 3 Y-Wings, waiting for anyone to come into the system, and either stop them, or delay them, until the Rebel base could be alerted to the danger.

The Hand reached out with the Force, and touched each of the pilot's minds, projecting the image, that all was clear. She then took her Interceptor out into the open, and passed right in front of the Y-Wings, without any problems, and made for Ord Mantel, before anyone else came along.


	4. Chapters 13-16

****

Chapter 13

Han Solo and Chewy walked into the control center, and was surprised by all the rushing around. After looking around for a moment, he finally spotted Leia and Luke, they were looking out the transperasteal window, out over the mountains. With them, was the shapeshifter that he had brought

back from his retrieval mission Odo, and another. He had only seen pictures of her before, and of course, Leia's stories, but this was her in person. Han walked up to the small group, with Chewy in tow. Odo was the first to notice them, and soon, the others were all looking at him.

"Hey, what's everyone looking at?" Han asked.

Luke looked at him, "The ship that Odo said the he was on, came into the system a little bit ago, and we sent Wedge, Wes, and Hobbie to escort them to the base."

Just then, Kasan Moor walked into the room. She walked up to the group, and stopped in front of them. She gave Mom Mothma a salute, "Is it true that there is an Empirial pilot on that ship, do you know who it is?"

Leia gave Kosan a stern look, "No, we don't have any info on that yet. Gold 1's transmission did not include information about the identity of the Empirial pilot. But we will know soon enough." Leia then turned back to the window, just in time to see three X-Wings, fly in, with a strange looking ship in the center of them. "And speaking of them, it looks like they have arrived." Leia then turned, and headed down to the hanger, with Han, Luke, Chewy, Mom Mothma, Odo, and Kasan in tow.

In the hall, they passed C-3PO. He stopped Han, "Captain Solo, may I ask where all of you are headed in such a hurry?"

Han looked at the driod "Go right ahead." and continued on his way. As the last member of the group turned the corner, 3PO decided that the fastest way to find out what was going on, would be to follow them to their destination, and started down the hall after them.

******

Kira watched, as they moved through the mountain range, and remembered that only a few years ago, she was doing the same thing, on Bajor, during their fight with the Cardasian. And it was because of that fight that she knew exactly what these Rebels were going through. But unlike the

Bajorian Rebellion, this one had more of a chance of success, and that was because it was not just one race fighting, it was a galaxy of races working together for a common purpose. She also knew that these Rebels had a lot more at their disposal, judging from the three ships escorting them to the base. The ships were far more advanced than anything that she ever flew in the days that she fought.

Kira's thoughts were interrupted suddenly by O'Brian. "Sensors show that we are approaching the end of our trip though this canon."

Tycho walked up behind them, "Don't be so sure of that Chief O'Brian," Tycho paused for a moment, and then went on to explain why he had told them that, "One time, my Tie Squadron overlooked an Alliance base, and it was hidden out in plain daylight to."

As Tycho said that, it was clear that they were about to reach the end of their trip through the canon, as a dead end was coming up. But much to the surprise of the crew, not one of the X-Wings made any attempt to change course or heading. As the four ships grew closer to the end of the road, a

door opened up in their path. The 3 X-Wings, and the Runabout, began to reduce their speed, and went into the opening. As the ship and the fighters, began landing procedures, the large doors closed, and a group of people came into the hanger.

Kira stared out the viewport, and looked around to take in her surroundings, when she spotted a single figure in the group that had come into the hanger after the doors had closed, Odo. She then silently thanked the Profits for bringing them back together, and proceeded to help O'Brian to land the ship.

******

Leia, Mom Mothma, Luke, Han, Chewy, 3PO, and Odo stood in front of the airlock of the Aries, as it opened. In the opening, Stood Kira, she stepped out of the ship, followed by Bashier, O'Brian, Nog, Worf, Jake, and another man stepped out of the ship. Odo suspected that it was the Empirial pilot that had hitched a ride to the base with them. After the others had left the ship, an Astromech driod rolled up to the opening. The pilot, Worf, and Bashier, picked up the driod, and placed him on the ground. Odo then looked at Luke, and saw that a huge smile had spread across his face.

Mom Mothma walked up to Kira, and extended her hand. Kira took it, and Mom Mothma smiled, "On behalf of the Rebel Alliance, I thank you for returning this driod," She indicated R2, "and we extend to you our full hospitality, until your stay has ended."

"It was a pleasure to return your driod to you." Kira replied. She would have said more, but Odo walked up behind Mom Mothma, and she immediately forgot everything that she was going to say, not that she had a chance to say anything, because Odo rushed up to her, and embraced her in a great kiss.

Luke noticed that all of the Federation people had started to chuckle a little, with the exception of the man, that had the rough forehead, and a sash over one shoulder. He immediately stepped forward, "I believe, that the Coronal was about to say, that we look forward to helping you out in the future as well." Kira and Odo finally detached, as he said this. 

Mom Mothma smiled, "Then we hope that you will honor that promise." She then looked at the group that had accompanied her to the hanger, and noticed, that Wedge, Wes, and Hobbie had joined the group. "If I may, introduce to you," beginning with Leia, "Princess Leia Organa, of Alderaan,

Captain Han Solo, Commander Luke Skywalker of Rogue Squadron, Captain Solo's companion, Chewbacca, R2-D2's counterpart, C-3PO, and I believe," indicating the members of Rogue Squadron that had just arrived, "that you already know your escorts, Wedge Antilles, Wes Janson, and Derek

Klivian also known as Hobbie."

Kira made introductions of her crew, then Tycho stepped forward, "And this it Lt. Tycho Celchu, the pilot that help us to reach your base." 

Tycho stepped forward, and stood at attention before Mom Mothma, "At this time, I cancel all ties that I have with the Empire, and ally myself, all my training and experience as a pilot, to the Rebel Alliance." Tycho then saluted her.

Mom Mothma, smiled, and extended her hand out to Tycho, and he took it, "Then welcome to the Rebel Alliance Lt. Celchu."

Just then, R2 began to beep and whistle. Luke walked over to the driod, and placed his hand on the dome head. "Yes R2," Luke told the driod, "I am glad to see you as well." Luke paused for a moment, "Did you get the info that we needed?"

R2 beeped some more, and 3PO translated it, "He said, that he did in fact get all of the information." R2 beeped some more, "O my," 3PO said, and then looked right at Luke, "Master Luke, R2 says that Admiral Ozzel has suggested, that you strike the Imperial gas mines on Taloraan, as the first strike against Moth Seerdon." R2 beeped and whistled some more, "The Admiral has given him data on that location that was not available before." 

That was all that Leia had to hear. She turned to the Rogue pilots, "Wes, Hobbie, get R2 to Ackbar, Madine, and Rieekan, for analysis of the data." The two pilots did as told, taking R2, with 3PO in tow, out of the hanger.

Leia turned back to their guests, as Mom Mothma began to talk again. "I believe that we would be more comfortable, if we went to another room." Kira and the others nodded, and followed Mom Mothma out the door to the hanger.

******

The Hand had brought her Tie into the planets atmosphere, and began landing procedures. Her scanners indicated the perfect place to get info on the Rebels, and brought her Tie in for a landing, in a hilly area, and shut the ship down. She then left the ship, pulling off her helmet, and changing out of the flight suit that she wore, into a black jump suit, and pulling a cloak on over her shoulders. She then clipped a lightsaber handle to her belt, leaving the hood of her cloak down, she began to walk to the town, her red hair blowing around in the wind.

As she walked, she began to feel that something was not right, and only a second later, four men jumped onto the path that she was walking on, two in front, and two in the back. One of the men in front of her, took a step towards her, "What do we have here?" he said, "Have you lost your way?" As

he said this, the other three men began to chuckle a little.

The Hand just looked at the man, "Let me pass, and none of you will be hurt." As she said this, she ever so slightly reach for her lightsaber, which was hidden under her cloak.

All four men just laughed out loud, and the other one in front of her, moved forward, "And who will be hurting us, You." He then took a look around, "I don't think that you know the gravity of the situation that you are in," He paused, and the Hand could hear the men behind her mutter something to each other, and begin to move forward. "You see, there are four of us, and only one of you."

As he said this, the two men behind the Hand jumped at her, and she moved out of the way, letting one of them pass by her, as she swung her foot around, and hit him in the butt, sending him forward, at a fast rate. As this happened, the other man came in at the Hand, and she swung her fist

out, and caught the man right in the jugular. He dropped to the ground, trying hard to breath.

This was the first man's Que. to rush in, but as he came in close to the Hand, she pulled her lightsaber out from under her cloak, and activated it. A red beam emerged from the handle, and she used it to decapitate the man. The first man that attacked her, had recovered, and had pulled out his blaster, and fired it at the Hand. She let the Force take control of her reflexes, and blocked each shot fired at her. She then rushed in, and swung then energy blade, cutting off first the arm of her attacker, then slicing right through the middle of his body. The last man that was standing, looked at his comrades, and then at the Hand, and started to run away from her. 

The Hand reached out with the Force, and she mentally grabbed his windpipe, and crushed it. The man immediately dropped to the ground trying to get his breath back, and finally passing out, and dying. The Hand then moved to the last of her attackers, who was still on his knees, trying to get air back in his lungs. The Hand steeped right up to him, and the man looked at her with pure terror in his eyes, as she brought up her lightsaber, and slashed down, slicing the man in half right down the

middle. She then looked at her handiwork, switched off the lightsaber, replaced it on her belt, and continued her trek to the town.

******

The walk to the briefing room, was a brief one, but the group had lost four people, as Captain Solo and Chewy had gone off to take care of something, and Luke had gone to check on his driod, and Tycho had been taken to be debriefed by alliance security. The remainder of the group entered the room, and took a seat at a table set up to one side. Mom Mothma was the first to speak. "I am sure that you have a lot of questions about our world, as we have a lot of question about yours." She then

indicated Odo, "Odo here told us about how you ended up here in the first place, and even though I can't say that I understand quite how it happened, I have a felling that it has happened for a reason."

"And why do you say that?" Bashier asked.

Mom Mothma searched for the right words, "Many years ago, a great Jedi Knight, named Mace Windu, told of how a strange ship from another universe would come to ours, and bring with it hope for not just our world, but theirs as well." Mom Mothma paused for a moment, "And I believe that this prediction has come true."

Kira stood up from her seat, and passed around the room, "If this prediction that you just mentioned has come true, I think that we will need to know a little more about this rebellion of yours, before we can help you."

Mom Mothma, nodded, "I understand Coronal." She then took a deep breath, "This story starts a long time ago, during the days of the Old Republic." Kira sat back down, as the story began, and weaved her arm into Odo's. "It all began with a group called the Trade Federation blockading a small planet called Naboo." Mom Mothma told them about how the Jedi knights had defeated the Trade, and how that battle was the start of the Empire. 

"After the Sith lord was defeated on Naboo," Mom Mothma continued, "And the Jedi Master Qui Gon Jin was laid to rest, the Republic punished the Trade Federation, and piece rained over the galaxy, until the Clone Wars started up." Mom Mothma went on to tell about the Clone Wars, "After the wars, Grand Chancellor Palpatine covertly began to form the Empire. It was not till the Jedi Knight Darth Vader turned to the dark side of the Force, that he really began to show his power." Mom Mothma took a deep breath, and continued, "With Vader's help, Palpatine began to hunt down the Jedi, and, as he called it, exterminate them. It was then that he announced that the Republic had become an Empire, and declared himself Emperor. When this happened, several Senators, including myself began the Rebellion. Now, all are dead but me." Mom Mothma trailed off, and Kira could clearly see the sadness in her eyes.

Leia picked up the story where Mom Mothma had left off. "For a long time, the Rebellion was considered an inconvenience for the Empire, but then when we learned of the Death Star, we decided to strike out in force. I was sent to the planet Tatooine by my father to find the last remaining Jedi Knight in existence, Ben Kanobi, and bring him back to Alderaan to help us in our battle." Leia went on to tell about how she had been captured by Vader, but not before sending the plans for the Death Star plans to the planet surface, in R2, then how Luke had found the driods, and then Kanobi. And how with the help of Han and Chewy, they had rescued her, got the plans to the Alliance, and were able to destroy the Death Star.

"After the battle at Yavin 4, the Empire became more desperate than ever to hunt us down, and destroy us." Mom Mothma came in with, "We left Yavin base, and eventually set up this temporary base here on this planet while a more permanent base is being constructed else were. Right after we got here, Luke came to us with a proposal, to create a squadron of the best of the best pilots that we had, in order to handle jobs, like the Death Star, and so he and Wedge Antilles, started Rogue Squadron."

Kira had listened to the story, and had found that a good part of what had happened to these people, was what had happened to her own. She looked at the others in the group, and saw that they were in agreement with her, that they should help in some way to fight the Empire, even Worf, seemed to agree. "Mom Mothma, Leia, I know from experience, what it is like to fight against all odds, and so I believe that I speak for all of us here, when I say that we will help you out in any way that we can, until a way for us to get home can be found." Kira paused to look at her crew, and found that they were all nodding in approval to her deception. She then looked back at Mom Mothma and Leia, "Just tell us what we can do, and we will help out in any way that we can."

Leia was about to say something, when her Comm unit beeped, "Leia here, what is it?"

Luke Skywalker's voice came over the Comm unit, "Leia, General Madine, and Admiral Ackbar have completed the annuluses of the data that R2 brought back, and they are ready for a briefing."

****

Chapter 14

The door opened, and Mom Mothma walked in, followed by Leia, and the crew of the Aries. As the others took a seat, Mom Mothma walked to the front of the room, where Ackbar and Madine stood. Madine acknowledged Mom Mothma, and then turned to the rest of the group, which also, to Kira's surprise, included, Tycho Celchu. "After analyzing the data brought to us by Coronal Kira, and her crew, with the help of Lt. Celchu, we have decided that the best place to launch our campaign against Moff Seerdon, to be on Taloraan." A holographic image appeared behind Madine, "Our plan is to have Rogue Squadron, as before, destroy the Empires supply of Tabana gas, which increases their weapons power." The image behind Madine, showed several fighters in what was undoubtedly dog-fighting maneuver. "The revision to this plan, is that we have found out about a Empirial weapons testing lab, on one of the floating cities. We will there for, while the Rogues keep the Imps busy, raid this lab, and take the weapon upgrades that will help to give us an advantage in this war."

There was a cheer of approval from the Rogues, as Madine sat down, and Mom Mothma stood up. "Thank you General Madine," she said, "but I have a few things to add to this briefing," she took a deep breath, "Fist of all, I have been told by Admiral Ackbar, that Lt. Celchu has been debriefed, and

has been given fighter duty, and will be assigned to Rogue Squadron for this mission." Tycho received a few slaps on the back by the others, as Mom Mothma continued, "Also, Coronal Kira, and her crew has agreed to help us, until such time, as they are able to return home." Mom Mothma, then turned to Ackbar, and Madine, "I hope that you two will have no objections to me bringing them in on our mission to Taloraan?"

"No Objections," Ackbar said, he then turned his attention to Kira, "Coronal Kira, how soon can you have a team of your people ready to go."

Kira starred at him, "I can have a team ready when ever you need us."

Ackbar nodded, then turned his attention to the Rogues, "Very well," he took a deep breath, "we are waiting for the Corellian Corvette Freedoms Edge, to arrive, then we will depart, with Home One, as backup." he took a deep breath, "Have yourselves and things ready in two hours." Ignoring the

moans, "Dismissed".

All of the Rogues, except for Luke and Tycho, filed out of the room, to take care of their last pieces of busyness before leaving for their mission. Mom Mothma, Leia, Ackbar, Madine, and walked up to Kira. Madine was the first to extend a hand, "General Crix Madine," He then indicated Ackbar, "and my amphibious friend here is Admiral Ackbar, of the Mon Calimary."

Kira took Madine's hand, and then Ackbar's, and introduced her crew. "General Madine, what would you like for my crew to help with?" Kira asked after the introductions were completed.

Madine looked at Kira, and then at the rest of her crew, as if trying to figure out what to do with them. "I don't think that we can use any pilots, with the Rogues covering us, but I could use some extra people on my commando raid, of the research lab, if you are interested?"

Kira thought it over for a few minutes, looking at each of her people, finally coming to the conclusion that she new that she would come to, "We're in General."

"Very well Coronal, I look forward to working with your team." Madine and Ackbar then turned and left the room.

Kira faced the others, "Ok, Worf, Odo, Nog, and Julian, you are with me." The four officers nodded, she then looked at O'Brian and Jake, "Chief, I need you to try and figure out how we can return to our universe, and Jake, I have a feeling, that Starfleet will want to know all that they can about his dimension, and I can think of nobody better suited for that job than you."

Both O'Brian and Jake nodded, and Kira turned to Mom Mothma, Leia, Luke, and Tycho. "Don't worry Coronal, we will put all of our resources into helping them on their tasks." Mom Mothma reassured Kira, "It is the least that we can do to repay you for helping us out."

Luke then spoke up, "And if you need some help holding off the Eyeballs and Squints, you can count on Rogue Squadron to help you." 

"Thank you Luke," Odo said, "I think that we may need all the help that we can get on this one."

Kira then spoke up, "But before that, we have a raid to complete first." Kira acknowledged the others in the room, "Lets head for the ship, and get ready." And the group left for their ship.

******

IG-88 came online so fast, that a bird type creature that had landed on it to rest, had no chance to escape, before a metal hand came up to grab it, and crush it. The Bounty Hunting driod, moved to the edge of the roof that it had closed down on the night before, and was now looking at the bar known as The Ax Pick. The driod was more than content to wait for Han Solo to come back, when suddenly, it saw something that could earn it a lot more credits than Han Solo.

The Driod adjusted its eyesight, so that it could get a better look at the person that just walked into the town. It was a female, approximately, 5' 6", with long red hair, and wearing a clock, that traditionally was only worn by Jedi Knights. IG-88 then switched to an x-ray view, and found the

one thing that made this woman a Jedi, a lightsaber. The driod, then began to position itself to capture this Jedi, and take her to the Emperor.

******

The Hand had not put much thought to her next move, and was walking into the small city that she had spotted from her fighter, when she began to feel the first signs that something was not right. Despite this, she continued her walk into the city, but the first chance that she had, she would cut off to an ally, and find out who was following her. 

Her chance came only moment later, when she spotted an ally, and quickly entered it. As she entered the ally, she kept her hand close to her lightsaber, and looked around. She crept around in the ally, until she reached a dead end. As she turned around, her sixth sense that always warned her of danger, kicked in, and she dove to her left, barley missing a blaster bolt that was undoubtedly aimed right at her. The Hand tucked her head, and rolled, finishing her roll, by jumping up to her feet, and at the same time pulling her lightsaber out, and activating it. The brilliant red beam came out of the handle, and lit up the ally a little. It was then that the Hand saw who her attacker was, the bounty driod, IG-88.

The driod landed on the pavement, and brought its blaster up to fire again. A red blast of energy leapt from the mussel, right at the Hand. Before IG-88 could even get off a shot though, the Hand raised her lightsaber, and blocked the bolt, and directed it right back at the Driod, who was ready for the attack, raising a force field around itself.

The Hand then rushed the driod as it lowered it's shield, and brought the energy blade down, cutting off it's left arm, she then brought the blade around, and brought it down on the blaster in the driods hand, cutting it in half. The Hand then reached out with the Force, and took the driod, and

though it up against the wall right behind it, and held it there. she then deactivated her lightsaber, and returned it to her belt, and walked over to the driod. "Now, lets have a little chat, about why you just tried to kill me."

******

As she walked towards the Runabout, Leia could see that the commandos were almost ready to leave, as well as the Rogues. The base, had gotten word only ten minutes ago, that the Freedoms Edge, had just entered a standard orbit, and was awaiting word to get underway. As soon as the Corvette had arrived, a signal was sent to Home One, which was hiding on one of Ord Mantels moons, and was also moving into position, above the planet. At the same time, the commandos and Rogue Squadron were alerted, an ordered to report to the hanger. The only group that had not shown up, was the group from the Federation that would be helping the commandos on this mission.

Leia walked up to the hatch that gave access to the interior of the ship, and it opened up, to reveal, the small group that would accompany the commandos. First out was Coronal Kira, then came Odo, then Worf, and finally, Nog, and Bashier stepped out of the ship. All of them, except for Odo, were carrying riffles of some sort, and side arms. But Worf and Bashier were carrying other things as well. Worf was carrying a nasty looking weapon, that had three handles, and four, what looked like, very sharp points. Bashier carried some sort of field kit, over his shoulder. Since he was a doctor, Leia figured that it was some sort of medical kit.

Leia walked up to Kira, and offered her a hand, "May the Force be with you Coronal Kira."

Kira nodded, and took Leia's hand in her own, "And may the Profits guide you though your life." The two ladies let go of each others hands, and Kira lead her group to the rest of the commandos that had assembled in the hanger.

Leia felt that somebody had walked up behind her, and when she looked back, she saw O'Brian and Jake. The three of them watched as the commandos boarded the shuttle that would take them up to Home One. The hatch closed, and the hanger doors opened. The X-Wings, were the first out of the door, followed by the shuttle.

When the doors shut, Leia turned around to face O'Brian and Jake, "If you two will follow me, we will get you started on your own missions." And she left the hanger, with the other two in tow.

****

Chapter 15

Kira had gone to the bridge of Home One, at the request of Admiral Ackbar, almost immediately after the shuttle that was carrying herself, Nog, Worf, and Bashier had landed in the shuttle bay. As she stepped onto the bridge, Kira saw more of Ackbar's people walking around, doing various jobs. She also noticed that the air was more humid on this part of the ship, probably to make the Calimary more comfortable.

Kira searched the bridge for a moment, and then finally found Ackbar, in what appeared to be a captains seat, looking over a datapad. As Kira approached, Ackbar handed the pad to an Alliance officer, and looked in her direction. "Ah, Coronal, I wish to talk to you about your role in the

upcoming raid." Ackbar then stood up from his chair, and gestured that she should follow him. They left the bridge, and entered a corridor, which they left almost as soon as they entered, by way of a door that lead into what Kira considered was the Admirals private office.

Ackbar took a seat behind the desk, and Kira took one across from him. "Now Coronal," Ackbar began, "Can you tell me some of the strengths of your group, so that General Madine and myself can properly implement them?" 

Kira thought it over for a moment, "To start off, Lt. Commander Worf, is from the Klingon Empire, which is a race of warriors, he has a great deal of fighting experience. Ensign Nog, is from the Ferengi, which normally, are nothing but thieves and hoodlums, but Nog is one of the few that I have seen that don't follow that tradition." Kira paused for a moment to consider what she was going to say next. "In addition, not so long ago, Nog displayed a rather acute ability to use his ears to hear things that others can not, which he displayed on a mission only a few months ago. Odo is of course a shape shifter. When in his natural state, he can move through almost anything, and then either retake his form, or that of something else. And finally, Dr. Bashier," once again, Kira searched for the best way to explain why she had brought him along. "I brought him along, in case one of us got hurt, since your medics are not familiar with our physiology."

"A wise choice Coronal," Ackbar put in, "And what about yourself, besides the fact that you are their commanding officer." 

Kira looked at Ackbar, "My skills are in the fact that only eight years ago, I was in a resistance movement myself." Kira then when on to tell Ackbar about how her people were made to suffer at the hands of the Cardassians, and how they had finally gotten them off of the planet, and brought the Federation in to run the old ore processing station, Terac Nor, which they renamed Deep Space Nine, and how that decision had helped them to find not only the Wormhole, but also the Emissary, who was DS9's commanding officer, Ben Sisco.

Ackbar listened to Kira's story with more than a little curiosity, "That is an amazing story Coronal, simply amazing." Ackbar paused for a moment, "Then that is why you are helping us on this mission?"

Kira nodded, "Although, my peoples resistance movement, was no where close to the scale that yours is."

Before Ackbar could respond, Kira's commbadge beeped, and then Odo's voice came over it, "Odo to Kira."

Kira tapped her badge, "Kira here, what is it Odo?"

"When you get done with your meeting with Admiral Ackbar, I would like for you to come to the shuttle bay to see something that may just be an answer to some of the problems that we have back home."

******

The green blade sliced through the piece of titanium, as easily as a hot knife through butter. Luke then pulled the blade back in front of him, and switched it off.

As he did so, Kira and Ackbar stepped out of the turbolift, and into the shuttle bay. When they saw Ackbar, all of the pilots stood at attention and saluted him. "At ease", he told them, as he returned the salute.

Kira walked up to Odo, "Well Constable, you brought us down here, what did you want us to see?"

"Luke here," Odo started, "has an interesting weapon, that I think that we can use in our dimension."

"And what weapon would that be Commander?" Ackbar asked.

Luke held out the cylinder, that was his fathers old lightsaber, "I was demonstrating my lightsaber to them Admiral."

Kira looked at the cylinder, "That thing looks familiar." she then looked at Bashier, "Doctor, doesn't that look like the cylinder that Darth Vader had on him?"

Bashier looked carefully at the weapon, and then looked back at Kira, a surprised look on his face, "Your right Coronal, it does resemble it in many ways."

Odo, who was looking at Luke, noticed that when Kira had mentioned Vader, Luke had tensed up. Odo walked up to Luke, "Are you alright Luke?"

As he looked at Odo, the tension that had just passed through Luke vanished. "Yes Odo, I am fine." Luke then walked up to Kira, and extended the handle to her. And she took it, turning it over in her hands. "It is called a lightsaber." Luke began, "it is the traditional weapon of Jedi Knights." Luke then went on to tell her about the Jedi, in the same way that he had told Odo before.

While Luke told about the Jedi, Odo moved over to Wedge Antilles, who was doing some work on his X-Wing. "Excuse me Lt. Antilles," Wedge looked away from his work at Odo, "But did you notice that?"

"Notice what?" Wedge asked Odo, as he turned his attention back to the work that he was doing.

"When the Coronal mentioned Darth Vader's name, Luke tensed up a little, and almost immediately loosened up again."

"Oh, that." Wedge placed the tool that he was using on the bench next to him, and picked up another one. "Darth Vader killed Luke's father, and his teacher." Wedge went back to work, as he continued to explain, "According to Ben Kanobi, Vader was a student of his, until he was seduced by the Emperor, and turned to the Dark Side on the Force. Vader then lead the Emperors extermination forces to hunt down and destroy the Jedi." Wedge paused for a moment, "Vader then killed Kanobi before they escaped the Death Star."

"And Luke wants revenge for the death of his teacher, and his father?" Odo then picked up

"No, just justice." Wedge put in, "Luke is the son of a Jedi, and can use the Force himself. If he gives in to revenge, that path will lead him to the dark side. So he just seeks justice."

Odo then felt a hand on his shoulder, and turned to see Bashier standing behind him. "Hey, the rest of us are headed down to the mess hall to get some food before we reach Taloraan."

Wedge looked at the Doctor, "Thanks Doctor, I just have to finish this maintenance work, and I will be right there."

"And you Constable?"

"Very well, lets go." Odo and Bashier left the Shuttle bay, leaving Wedge in there alone.

******

Miles O'Brian was never more glad for a distraction in all his life, as he rode in the back seat of the land speeder. The Alliances technicians were more attentive to detail than he would have thought it possible for a rag tag group to have. It was because of this that he had almost given one of

them what they had called years ago on earth, and Knuckle Sandwich. He then left the room, and luckily ran into Han Solo, and his companion, Chewboka. Odo had told him after they had arrived at the base, that his translator had began to understand the Wookie's language, and O'Brian hopped that this trip into the small city that was located nearest to the base, would give it a chance to completely decipher the language.

As they entered the city, O'Brian looked all around, and saw that though there was a number of people, the city looked as if it had been built, and then nothing else, accept for what looked like some patch up work every now and then. O'Brian leaned up towards the front, "Do most cities look like this on this planet?"

"This planet and many others, especially in the Outer Rim Territories." Han answered him. "the Empire insists that everyone makes a contribution to them. That has left a lot of planets with no money to repair or rebuild anything." And O'Brian thought about this as he sat back in his seat.

******

IG-88 and the Hand stood on top of the building across from the Ax Pick. After their little rumble in the ally, and the driod had confessed that it was after her because of the way that she was dressed, and her weapon, that he had gone after her thinking that she was a Jedi. When the Hand

explained that she was working for the Emperor, the driod had been more than willing to form an alliance with her. And together, they had formed a plan to capture Han Solo and find out if the Rebels were on this planet or not.

As she watched, a land vehicle pulled up in front of the bar that they had been watching. Out of it stepped a large Wookie, a human, that the Hand immediately recognized as Han Solo, from the Death Stars records, and the last person that got out of the vehicle, wore the gray and black uniform that she had been told to look for. As the three people stepped into the bar, she looked at her companion, "I am going in, you know what to do."

The driod looked at her, and nodded, "YES, I DO." And the Hand made her way down to the street, where she would enter the bar, and finally meet one of the people that she had been pursuing.

******

The mess hall on Home One, was a fairly large room. And it seemed that the entire room, was gathered around the table that the Rogues, and their guests were sitting at. The entire time, one of the Rogues, named Zev Senesca, was telling a story. "So, there I was, one of two X-Wings put in charge of guarding the last convoy from Yavin, when out of nowhere, came twelve Tie Fighters." Zev paused for a moment.

"So, what happened?" Dack asked, his eagerness clearly showing. 

"Well," Zev began, "my wing mate and I knew that we had to hold off the Eyeballs, until the convoy ship jumped out of the system. We locked our S-Foils in attack position, and accelerated to attack speed, and flew right into the hart of their formation, with lasers blazing, form both directions." Zev paused for a moment, so that everyone could get a picture of this in their heads, then continued, "We were able to vape five of them, on our first run through the formation. We then swung our fighters around, and went back to try and take out the rest of them. I shot off several blasts from my guns, and took out two more Eyeballs, when I saw a explosion behind me, and my wing mans voice came over the Comm, saying that I was almost more debris." Zev paused for a moment, and then continued, "That was when an Eyeball finally got a lock on one of us, and blew his fighter, along with him, out of the sky.

"By that time, there was only five more Ties for us to fight off, and I turned my X-Wing around, and headed right for the one that got my wingman, switched my firing mode to Proton Torpedoes, and let one loose. I turned my fighter back to the remaining four Ties, before the one that I shot at

even blew up." Zev took a drink from the glass in front of him, "my R5 unit told me that the other four fighters, had almost caught up with the transport, so I ordered him to put all power to the engines, and to let me know the minute that I was in weapons range. Sure enough, a couple of seconds later, I had a target lock, and figured that the best way to ensure that the transport ship would make it to Hyperspace, I tried something that I don't even know how I did, I targeted all four Eyeballs, and fired all four of my lasers at one time, and all four blasts hit home." Zev paused a moment, and took another drink from his glass, "A few minutes later, the transport went into Hyperspace, with me along for the ride."

The entire group that had gathered fell silent, until Worf broke the silence, "What an honorable battle." Everyone looked at Worf, "Only the greatest of warriors, can overcome odds like that one."

Bashier then spoke up, before Worf could say anything else, "What happened after your battle?"

Zev looked at the medic, "When we reached the new base, General Rieekan called me to his office, and introduced me to Luke, who was at the time putting Rogue Squadron together, with Wedge, and I have been a member ever since."

Before anyone else could say anything, a voice came over the speakers, "Attention all personnel, we will be coming out of Hyperspace in ten minutes, all flight crews and commandos report to the shuttle bay." The message repeated again, but before the repeat was over, the mess hall was empty.

****

Chapter 16

O'Brian felt like he was at Quarks, as he entered the Ax Pick. It was fairly crowded, but a lot more dusty that Quarks but it still had that same feeling to it. He followed Han to a table in a secluded area of the floor, and sat down. An alien woman, scantily dressed, with white skin, and two tail like things hanging from her head approached them. "The usual Captain Solo?" Han nodded, and she then turned to O'Brian, "And what can I get for you?"

O'Brian looked at her, "Just a Raktagino." O'Brian told her, and then remembered where he was. He looked at the waitress, then Han and Chewy, who were looking at him with odd expressions, "Sorry, just bring me something that will keep me on my feet." The waitress nodded, and then headed off.

Han laughed a little, before getting up, "Hey, I have to meet up with someone, I will be back in a few minutes." and he left the table. 

O'Brian looked at Chewy, "So, do you usually come to this pace?"

The Wookie responded, "Yes we do. The owned is a good friend of Hans."

O'Brian smiled inside, that the translator that he had, was working. "That's interesting, how long have the two of them been friends?"

Chewy gave O'Brian a strange look, "You understood me?"

"Yes." O'Brian said.

"Then your people are far more advanced that we originally thought you to be." Chewy responded.

As he opened his mouth to say something else, a woman walked up to the table, the most unique thing about her, besides her beauty, was her fire red hair, the hung down over her shoulders. "Excuse me, but I was wondering, if one of you could help me, my vehicle broke down outside, and I don't have the slightest idea how to go about fixing it.

Chewy began to get up, but O'Brian put his hand on the Wookies chest, "I can handle this." Chewy nodded, and sat back down in his seat, and watched as O'Brian left with the woman.

******

By the time they had arrived to the ally that the lady had said that her vehicle was stalled out in, she had introduced herself as Mara Jade. "My land vehicle is just inside the ally." Mara told O'Brian as they walked into it. Once in the ally, O'Brian only found, a nasty looking driod, standing right in front of him, holding a large blaster.

O'Brian then looked at Mara, only to find, that she was also holding a blaster as well, and it was pointed at him. "I am sorry, but my Emperor demands that you and your friends be dealt with, before you become a problem." She then leveled off the blaster, "but don't worry, I won't kill you yet, you are going to be bate for Captain Han Solo." She then pulled back on the trigger, and the last thing that O'Brian saw, was a blue light, then numbness, and then finally darkness.

******

When Han walked back to the table, he noticed, that Chewy was alone, and that O'Brian was nowhere to be seen. "Hey, where's O'Brian at?" As he sat down, Chewy told Han about how the lady had come, and how O'Brian had volunteered to take a look at her vehicle, and had not been seen since.

Han got up out of his seat, "We had better find him, Jacen just told me that there is a rumor of an Imperial agent is in the area." And with that, Han and Chewy left the Ax Pick, to find O'Brian.

******

When O'Brian woke up, he found that he had been tied to a chair with some sort of rope. Mara Jade was standing near the entrance, with the driod behind her. He was about to try and get out of the rope, but then remembered that Jade had told him that he was going to be bait for Han and Chewy. O'Brian leaned his head forward, as if he was still knocked out, and looked at the spot were his small type one phaser was located, noticing that it was just within reach of his left hand, which surprisingly was not bound behind the chair. Closing his eyes, O'Brian began to form a plan just incase his two kidnappers were able to get the better of both Han and Chewy.

******

Han and Chewy, had only looked for a few minutes, when they found a trail that was either created by O'Brian, or by someone else that lead directly to the hanger. Han looked at the number over the door, "Damn, this is the hanger, where IG-88 has it's ship stashed at." Han then drew his blaster, Chewy followed suit by drawing his bowcaster, and they entered the hanger, slow and easily, until they saw O'Brian tied up in the middle of the landing pad, right next to the driods ship.

"Ok Chewy," Han said, "cover me, and I will go out and get O'Brian."

Chewy gave a quiet roar of understanding, and Han darted out into the hanger. He had almost reached O'Brian, when a blaster bolt stopped him dead in his tracks. Han turned to see who had fired the blast, and was not very surprised to find IG-88 on the other side of a large blaster carbing, aimed right at Han.

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE CAPTAIN SOLO," the driod told Han, "YOU AND THE WOOKIE ARE GOING ON A LITTLE TRIP TO SEE JABA THE HUT." The driod then indicated Hans blaster, "NOW THROW DOWN YOUR WEAPON." Han cursed a little, and then complied with the driods commands, only to see out of the corner of his eye, Chewy, aiming his bowcaster at the driod, and apparently so did IG-88, as it brought its carbing around to aim at Chewy, and fired what had to be a warning shot.

Just then, Han heard a snap, and then saw a red beam hit the driod square in the chest plate. He looked over, to see that O'Brian had gotten loose, and had drawn a weapon that Han had no idea that he even had. The driod stumbles a little bit, and then regained its equilibrium, and swung around

to point its blaster at O'Brian. Han took this moment, to get his own blaster. He jumped, tucked his head, so that he would roll, and grabbed the blaster in one hand, continuing the roll into a stand, and fired at the driod. At the same time, Chewy, had brought his bowcaster up, and fired it at the driod as well. IG-88 stumbled a bit under the on-slot and then fell to the floor, and shut down.

All three of them met a few feet form the driods deactivated body, but before anyone could say a thing, blaster bolts began to rain down on them from above. All three of them took cover behind some crates, and began to return fire, only to find, that whoever had the blaster, was good enough to keep them lined down. Han looked at O'Brian, "Any suggestions on how to get out of this mess?" O'Brian looked at Han, "Only one," He reached up, and hit his Comm badge, "O'Brian to Aries, three to bream up, energize."

Suddenly, Han began to feel lightheaded, and noticed, that the noise that the blaster was making was getting quieter, and that the room was disappearing around him, only to form into a new room. O'Brian stood up, and Han followed suit, and Chewy last.

"What the hell just happened, and where are we?" Han asked, but before O'Brian could answer, he looked out one of the view ports, and saw that they were in the main hanger of the rebel base.

O'Brian looked at Han for a moment, and then it dawned on him, "You have never been beamed anywhere have you?"

Han looked back at O'Brian, "Beamed?"

O'Brian told Han about how the transporter worked, and how it was able to bring them back to the base, and Han took it all in. When O'Brian was finished with his explanation, Chewy was the first to speak, "Impressive." He then appeared to be thinking about something, "But anyway, we should tell Mom Mothma, and Princess Leia about this little attack."

Han nodded in agreement, "I agree Chewy," Han then appeared as if he was considering his next words, "If IG-88 or his accomplice had gotten a message out, before we took him out, then the Empire could be on their way here even as we speak."

"Then lets go." O'Brian put in, and led the others to the airlock.


	5. Chapters 17-20

****

Chapter 17

As he got into his X-Wing, Luke felt the feeling that he had felt every time he was about to go into battle. It was a mixture of excitement and fear, and he loved it. After jumping into the cockpit of the fighter, he looked back at R2, who was being lowered into his socket. It felt good to once again have his co-pilot back. He put his helmet on, and looked around to see the other members of Rogue Squadron either finishing their pre-flight prep work and closing their canopies, or already finished with the pre-flight, and ready to get to work. Luke hit the switch that would close his own canopy, and then opened a channel to the squad's private frequency. "Ok Rogues," Luke began, "for this mission we will be doing a little rearranging as far as wing men are concerned." Luke took a deep breath, and continued, "Wedge, you will fly wing with Kason, Hobby you will be with Zev, and Wes will be with Dack. And by now I guess that you have guessed that you are with me Tycho."

"Acknowledged lead." Tycho said.

Luke flipped his comm. back over to the fleet frequency, "This is Rogue Squadron, we are ready to go."

"Acknowledged Rogues," came Ackbar's voice, "you are clear to go, and May the Force be with You."

"Thanks Admiral." Luke said, and then powered up his engines, and led the other 7 fighters, and the troop transport out of the bay, and into open space.

******

Kira watched from behind the co-pilots seat, as the 8 X-wings lead the way out of _Home One's_ hanger bay, and into open space. General Madine, who was sitting in the pilots seat activated the comm. unit, "Rogue's this is Madine."

"We read you General." Came Luke's voice over the speakers.

"Commander, this base has a massive amount of both standard Tie's and Tie Interceptors. I want 2 of you to fly cover for the shuttle at all times." 

"Acknowledged General," Luke said, "my wingman and I will handle that."

******

"Very well Commander, Madine out." Madine said as the channel closed.

Almost immediately, Luke reached over, and flipped the comm. frequency to the one that the Rogue's used, "Ok Rogue's, you heard him, Tycho and I will cover the transport, while the rest of you and the A-Wings handle the Imp's or their supply of Tabana gas. Until we link back up, Wedge will be in command of the main attack."

"Acknowledged Luke." Wedge said.

"Just remember Rogue's that not all targets at Imperial, so be sure that what you are shooting at is in fact Imperial."

"Now I know what it is like to be on the other side of one of these little raids." Kasan said, 

Luke smiled, and then he heard Tycho's voice, "Don't worry Kasan, I am sure that they will become second nature to us soon enough."

******

Madine entered the prep room on the transport, and almost immediately the room got quite. "We will be landing in a few minutes." Madine began, "Once we land, we will split up into two teams. Team one will be the diversionary team, which will be lead by me. Team two will be the ones that actually go after the weapons technology, and that team will be lead by Coronal Kira here." Madine indicated Kira, and then continued. "The members of her crew that have come along have already been split up between the two of us." Madine looked at Kira, "Coronal."

Kira nodded to Madine, "Odo and Lt. Worf will be part of my team, while Dr. Bashier and Ensign Nog will go with General Madine and his team. The rest of you will be divided up as we depart from the ship." Both Kira and Madine looked at all of the troops, and then turned and headed back into the cockpit.

****

Chapter 18

It had only taken O'Brien, Han and Chewy ten minutes to find Leia and Mom Mothma, and only another ten for them to issue the evacuation signal. Jake Sisco tried to move with the rebels rushing to the hanger with equipment of all shapes and sizes in order to get to the runabout were he would meet up with O'Brien. When he finally reached the bay, he quickly found O'Brien at the hatch to the runabout, with Princes Leia and Mom Mothma standing on either side of him, and ran up to them.

"What's going on?" He asked when he reached them.

"We have reason to believe that the Empire knows that we are here Mr. Sisco," Mom Mothma began, "and we are evacuating all personnel to our new base of operations."

"Since we have the fastest ship here, we will be taking Mom Mothma, Leia, and General Rieekan with us just in case the rest of the base is not fast enough to get out of here before the Empire arrives." O'Brien added.

Jake walked up to the entrance of the runabout, and paused there when he noticed Han Solo walk up with Rieekan on one side, and Chewbacca on the other. "The first two transports are ready to go Mom Mothma." Rieekan reported.

"Very well General." Mom Mothma said as she brought a comm. link out from under her cloak, "Control room this is Mom Mothma."

"Go ahead." The officer on duty in the control room said.

"Activate the bases comm. system so that everyone can hear me."

It took a moment or two, but the officers voice came back over, "Your on Mom Mothma."

Mom Mothma brought the comm. unit up to her mouth and spoke into it, only unlike before, this time her voice was carried by some sort of Public Address system. "Brave members of the Rebel Alliance, this is Mom Mothma." She paused as if trying to find the right words, and then continued, "As you may or may not have guessed, the Empire has found out about our base here on Ord Mantel. We will there for be moving our operation to our new base. We will be launching each transport as they are filled, and hope that you will all make it to the new base. I wish all of you the best of luck, and May the Force be with you all." Mom Mothma pulled the comm. link away from her mouth, and then went off with Leia and Rieekan to oversee the evacuation.

******

Mara Jade moved as fast as she could to her modified Tie Interceptor. As soon as she got there, she powered up the comm. system, "This is Imperial intelligence officer, code number 332102 to Emperor's Pride. I have located the Rebel base, and am requesting that all available ships come to Ord Mantel as fast as possible in order to trap them." Mara listened to the recording, and then sent it off to the Pride. It was now up to Darth Vader to stop the Rebels from escaping. She then activated the ships repulsers, and headed for space, where she would try and make it a little easier for the Emperor's Pride to attack the Rebels before they could be alerted to the SSD's presence in the system.

****

Chapter 19

As her group ran through the corridors of the research center, Kira began to get the old feelings that she had every time she and her Resistance Cell back on Bajor raided a Cardasian installation. Her team quickly rounded a corner, and ran right into a detachment of Storm Troopers. "Halt!" shouted one of the Troopers. Kira lowered her weapon, and everyone else followed her lead. "Alert command that we have captured several Rebels." The Trooper said to one of the other Storm Troopers in the group. That Trooper was about to follow his orders, when an ooze dripped down from above them, and took on a humanoid form behind them. Odo then turned his arms into a set of whips, and began to strike at all of the Storm Troopers, giving Kira and her team the time that they needed to pick up their weapons, and shoot all of them.

"Well done Constable." Kira said.

Odo Nodded, and pointed down a corridor, "The research lab is just down that way."

Worf then moved up to them, " We should get moving, those Storm Troopers might have alerted their superiors before we were able to take care of them."

Kira nodded to Worf, and then turned to one of the Rebel Commandos, "Lieutenant, have everyone move on ahead, but also tell them to be keep an eye open for anymore Storm Troopers."

"Yes sir." The Rebel said, as he ran over to the rest of the Rebels in the group.

*******

Luke brought his X-Wing around for another pass of the research facility, when he heard Tycho's voice over the comm., "Rogue Leader, I show several Squints headed our way."

Luke looked at his own scanner, and it showed the same thing that Tycho's did, a squadron of Tie Interceptors headed right for their position. "Ok, prepare to engage them, but try to keep them away from the research facility until our people lift off from it." Luke then turned the comm. to the squadron frequency, "Wedge, we may have a bit of a problem here," not waiting for Wedge to reply, Luke continued, "we have a squadron of Squints headed our way."

Wedge Antilles voice came over the comm., "I read you Lead, we are kind of busy with our own Eyeballs and Squints, but we will get there as soon as we can."

Luke knew that he could not expect anything more than that, "Ok, we will try to save some for you then, Skywalker out!" Luke then switched the comm. back over to the frequency to General Madine's pocket comm., "General, we have several Squints headed this way, I recommend that you finish your mission as fast as you can."

Crix Madine's voice came back over the speakers in Luke's helmet, "Ok Commander Skywalker, just hold them off the best you can, and I will be sure to pass that info onto the Coronal and her team."

Luke let out a sigh, "Acknowledged, Skywalker out." Luke looked out the veiwport, and saw that the Squints were coming in at top speed. He then switched the comm. back over to the one that he had with Tycho, "Ok Tycho, it is all up to us until the rest of the squadron gets here. Are you ready for this?"

The other pilots voice was a little uneasy when he spoke, "I have been ready for this moment ever since I heard what happened to Alderaan."

Luke nodded, and then turned off the comm.. He then looked briefly back at R2-D2, "Ok R2, lets show these Imps that they messed with the wrong people." R2 beeped in acknowledgement, and Luke increased his fighter's speed to full, with Tycho's X-Wing right behind him.

******

Kira ducked back behind a the corner, after firing off three shots with her Phaser, but unfortunately, the troops that were blocking their way to the research lab fired a lot more than three shots back at her. Worf who had taken up position across from her, pulled out a Photon Grenade out of a small bag that he had brought along, set the timer on it, and through it down the passage. Unfortunately the Imperial Troops didn't realize what it was in time, and were all caught off guard by the grenades blast. Worf then leapt out from around the corner, and charged at the Troops with his Phaser Rifle firing all of the way.

"Move in!" Kira shouted over the sound of the Phaser Rifle, and as she moved out from around the corner, a Trooper that was lying on the ground managed to pick up his blaster, and shot it at Kira. The blaster bolt struck her in the shoulder, and she was thrown back. Seeing this, Worf pulled out his bat'telh, Worf brought the weapon down into the Troopers back, killing the man instantly.

Worf then left the rest of the Imperials for the Rebels to take care of, and headed over to see to Kira. Odo was already there, "How is she?" Worf asked.

"I'm fine." Kira said as a wince of pain shot through her, she then looked at Worf, "Go and get what we came here for Worf, you are in command now." Worf looked down at her, "GO!" she said in a more commanding voice.

"I will get her back to the shuttle." Odo said as he picked her up.

"Go with them, and make sure that they make it back." Worf said to a couple of the commandos. They both nodded, followed Odo back to the ship. Worf then hit his commbadge, "Worf to Dr. Bashir."

The Doctor immediately responded, "Bashir here."

Worf took a deep breath, "The Coronal has been wounded."

"How bad is it?" Bashir asked, with blaster and Phaser fire going off in his area.

Worf talked as he walked up to join the rest of the commandos, "She was shot in the shoulder by a blaster." Anticipating the Doctors next question, "Odo is taking her back to the shuttle as we speak."

"Ok, I will head out there as soon as I can, Bashir out."

Worf then looked at the Rebel commandos. While he had been talking to Bashir, they had applied the explosives to the door, and were now getting ready to blow it. Worf ducked back behind a corner again, and the demolitions expert blew the door into the lab.

******

Luke pushed down on the fire button, and a Proton Torpedo leapt out of the launcher, and streaked right at the Interceptor that he was trailing. The torpedo hit the Tie and it blew up as Luke swung his fighter around to track another squint. Luke took a moment to check his monitors, and noticed that he and Tycho had taken the force of 12 Squints down to 6, but then he noticed several other marks headed their way. "R-2, can you identify those other ships coming in?"

The small droid beeped an acknowledgment, and placed the data on Luke's monitor, "THEY ARE ANOTHER SQUADRON OF TIE INTERCEPTORS." R-2 reported.

Luke watched as Tycho scored another Squint, and hoped that they would be able to hold out until the rest of the Rogues could arrive to help them out.

******

Worf was the first one into the lab, and pointed his Phaser Rifle at the group of weapons designers that were in the room. "Nobody move!" he commanded as the groups Slicer moved into the room, and began to access the computers. One of the researchers became brave, and started to move in to stop the Slicer, but Worf leveled his weapon at him, and fired. The stun blast sent the researcher flying back a couple of feet and he landing hard on the ground. Worf then indicated the man that he had just stunned, "Take a lesson form your friend there, and stay were you are."

"Got it," the Slicer said in triumph, "we should be out of here in a few minutes."

Worf nodded, as he kept one eye on the Slicer, and one on the researchers. After a few minutes had passed, the Slicer stood up, and nodded the he was finished. Worf then set his Rifle on wide dispersal, and when all of the commandos had left the room, he hit the trigger, and sent a wide beam of energy out to stun all of the researchers in the room. He then turned and left without another word, only a smile o his face.

******

The second squadron of Interceptors had made Luke and Tycho's jobs a lot harder. Before the second group had gotten there, they had managed to take out only two more fighters from the original group. Luke felt the fighter rock, as his X-Wing was hit time after time by fire from one of the Squints that was on his tale. But he had hardly gotten off a command for R-2 to try and increase the power to his shields when he saw an explosion behind him. Luke turned around, and saw that the rest of the Rogue's as well as the Corvette had arrived, and were now making short work of the rest of the Squints. Luke smiled as he keyed his comm., "I am glad that the rest of you could make it."

"And let you have all the fun Commander?" Dack asked, "No way."

Pride began to swell in Luke, as he began to direct the battle, "Ok, here is the plan, Wedge, take Kason and the _Freedoms Edge_, and protect the shuttle from the Squints. The rest of you join up with me and Tycho and start knocking out as many of them as we can." Luke heard a chorus of acknowledgements from all of the Rogues, and they all went off to handle their assigned duties.

******

The moment that Crix Madine heard that the first team had gotten the new weapons technology, he had ordered his group to head back out to the ship. Just before they got back to the landing platform that the shuttle what on though, Nog yelled the everyone should stop, "I hear something." The young Ferengi had said, and that was all that Madine needed to hear. Earlier when they had first arrived at the Research Center, Nog had said that he had heard something just as one of the commandos in the party had turned around and corner, and had been blasted by a Storm trooper that had been there. Madine decided that it was wiser that they listen to the alien form then on out, and had not been ready for any of the Imps that could be waiting for them, but also had lost a lot less troops outside of actual fire fights.

"What did you hear Nog?" Madine asked

Nog was about to answer, when a group of 10 Storm Troopers came around the corner with their weapons firing. "Take cover, and return fire!" Madine ordered to all of the commandos.

All of the commandos scrambled as red blaster bolts shot past them. Nog had dove behind a crate, and aimed is Phaser Rifle at one the troopers, and fired. The Storm Trooper flew back, knocking another trooper out of the fight as well. Nog was just lining up to take out another Storm Trooper, when a Phaser beam hit him from behind. Nog then watched as the second group of commandos moved up from behind the trooper formation.

After dispatching the last of the troopers, Madine's group moved out from behind the cover that each of the had taken, and Madine walked up to Worf, "Good job Commander Worf," Madine said to the Klingon, "but how did you know that we needed help?"

"We heard the blaster fire as we moved out to the shuttle, and decided that you may have needed some help." Worf said.

Madine smiled, "Good job." he said to Worf, and then turned back to the rest of the members of his commando group, "Ok, lets move out."

******

With the rest of Rogue Squadron joining the fight against the Interceptors, the battle was very short. Luke had no sooner vaped the last of the Squints, when the speakers in his helmet activated, and General Madine's voice came through it, "Commander Skywalker, mission completed."

"I read you General," Luke said, "bring the shuttle to barring 5.3, and we will cover you on your return trip to _Home One_." Luke then swung his X-Wing around, and switched his comm. channel to the squadron frequency, "Ok Rogue's, we are now escorting the shuttle back to Home One. Form up around it, and follow it out." Luke heard all of the Rogue's acknowledge the order, and they all flew over to the Shuttle.

******

Bashir ran his scanner over Kira's shoulder, and shook his head, "It looks like most of the nerves in your shoulder were damaged by the blaster bolt." Bashir looked at his tricorder, and frowned, "I am not sure if I will be able to repair them until we get back to DS9 though."

Kira looked at the Doctor, obviously not to pleased with the news that he had just given to her. Then one of the commandos moved up to them, "General Madine was wondering how the Coronal was."

Bashir looked at the man, "I can't do anything for her until we get back home."

The commando looked at Bashir, "I think that we can help her out sooner than that, and then walked away without another word.

"What was that all about?" Odo asked? Bashir just shrugged his shoulders and returned his attention to Kira.

****

Chapter 20

Worf stepped out of the turbolift onto the Bridge of _Home One_, and immediately saw Admiral Ackbar, and moved up to him. "You wished to see me Admiral?" Worf asked.

"Yes Commander," Ackbar said as he looked at the handed a data pad to another Calamari officer, "I understand that Coronal Kira was injured in the raid on the Weapons Research Facility."

Worf nodded, "Yes, she was."

"How is she doing then?" Ackbar asked.

"I am not sure," Worf said, "when we got back to the ship some of the ships medics took her to your sickbay, and placed her in some sort of tank."

Ackbar smiled, and shook his head, "They put her in a Bacta tank then. She should be fine before we get back to the base."

Worf was not sure if he quite believed the Admiral, but he knew better than to contradict him in the presence of the rest of the crew, so he decided to let it go and see if this Bacta stuff would help the Coronal. "Was there anything else Admiral?" Worf asked.

Ackbar looked at Worf, and nodded, "We will be emerging form hyperspace in a few hours, and at that time I plan to try and make contact with the Alliance base. Since Kira will more than likely still be in the Bacta tank at that time, I was hoping that one of the other members of your crew would like to be here when I make contact?"

Worf thought the request over, and figured that it made a great deal of sense, Chief O'Brien and Jake Sisko might be wondering how the mission went, and when the rest of the crew would be returning. "I will be here when you make the transmition." Worf said.

Ackbar smiled, "Good, I will let you know when we leave hyperspace then." Worf nodded to the Calamari, and then left the bridge.

******

Kira floated in the Bacta tank in an almost hypnotic way as Odo watched her. She was nearly naked, with the exception of the garment that she wore under her uniform. The Medics had attached a breather mask to her face, which covered both her nose and mouth, and as far as he could tell, Kira appeared to be in some sort of daze. Just then Bashir walked into the room, and looked at the Coronal floating in the tank. "How is she Odo?" Bashir asked, knowing that Odo had not left the side of the tank since they had put her into it.

Odo shrugged his shoulders, "It's hard to tell if she is getting any better." Odo paused, "At least as far as I know."

Bashir nodded, and then looked up at Kira's shoulder, and saw that the wound was indeed healing. When they had first gotten to ship, Bashir and Odo were with the medics as they stripped Kira out of her uniform. The blaster wound on her shoulder had looked really bad. The skin was a mixture of blackened skin and blood, and all indications were that every nerve in that area had been destroyed with no hope of ever being able to restore them properly until they got back to the station. Now, the wound was a lot smaller, and it looked like the flesh around it was growing back at an accelerated rate. Just then a medic came into the room followed by a medical droid. "Good," the medic said, "it looks like she is responding exceptionally well to the Bacta."

"How can you tell?" Odo asked.

The medic looked at Odo, "Usually a blaster wound like that takes about 2 or 3 days to heal properly, but your friends wound is healing up in only a matter of hours." The medic checked his chronometer, and nodded, "She should be out of the tank in a few more hours."

******

Worf stepped off of the turbolift and onto the ships bridge. Ackbar looked at the Commander from his command chair, and smiled, "Ah, Mr. Worf, we are just about to leave hyperspace, and send a signal out to the base." Worf nodded, and walked up to the Admiral, "So, how is the Coronal doing?"

"Better," Worf said, "Dr. Bashir sill still want to check her out when she comes out of that tank, but he suspects that she will make a full recovery."

"Excellent." Ackbar said as both he and Worf watched though the veiwport as _Home One _left hyperspace, and entered real space.

Almost immediately, the officer at the comm. station called out, "Admiral, we have an incoming transmition."

Ackbar stood up, and moved over to a view screen, "Lets see it." He said as Worf moved up behind him.

The screen activated, and the image of Mom Mothma appeared on it. "Admiral Ackbar," Mom Mothma said, "I am sorry to inform you of this, but the Ord Mantel base has been evacuated, and we are moving to our fall back location."

Ackbar nodded, "What happened?"

Mom Mothma looked at Ackbar, "An imperial agent captured Chief O'Brien, and nearly killed Captain Solo and Chewbacca. They were able to escape, and warn us, and all of the ships barely made it out of the system before a Super Star Destroyer and it's escort ships came into the system."

Ackbar nodded, "Then we will meet up with you in the Moroby system and then jump to our new base?"

"No," Mom Mothma said, "you will proceed to the Naboo system, and meet up with the _Aries_ there."

"The Naboo System?" Ackbar asked.

"Yes," Mom Mothma said, "we are going to help our new allies return to were they belong."

Before Ackbar could say anything more, Mom Mothma moved out of the image, and Mile O'Brien moved into the frame. Worf stepped up to the screen, and the Chief immediately saw him, "Worf, were is the Coronal?"

"She was injured during the raid, and is undergoing medical treatments at this time." Worf informed him.

O'Brien nodded, "Ok, while you are on route to the Naboo system, I need for you and Nog to check on a few things." Worf nodded to O'Brien, and he continued, "First off, I need you to look at the torpedo launching system on one of the X-Wings. See if it can be modified to launch a Photon Torpedo, and then I want you to see if one of their Proton Torpedo's can be modified to act as a Photon."

"We will get to work n it right away Chief." Worf said, "Was there anything else?"

O'Brien shook his head, "Not until we get there." He then looked away from the screen, and then looked back, "I just sent you a copy of the plan that I cam up with to get us back to Federation space, just look it over, and get ready to implement it when we meet up."

Worf nodded, "Understood Chief." The screen then went dark as the transmition was cut.

******

Darth Vader looked at the printout of the transmition that he had just received from Taloraan, and was not very pleased by it. A Rebel strike force broke into the weapons research facility there and had stolen all of the information that they needed to improve their weapons to nearly that of Imperial level. What most troubled Vader, was that witnesses had said that they had seen people that matched the descriptions of the Federation. This angered Vader to no end, but he was able to control his anger so that he could make a transmition to the Emperor.

The Emperors image loomed large in front of Vader, and he fell to one knee. "My master, I assume that you have heard about the latest Rebel raid?" Vader asked.

"I have indeed," Palpatine said to his student, "and it troubles me that they were helped by these Federation people."

"As it does with me my Master." Vader said.

"How is the dismantling of the Rebel base proceeding?"

"Unfortunately it will take us another day or so to completely demolish the base so that it can never be used again." Vader reported.

The Emperor frowned at this news, "Then contact the Star Destroyers _Annihilator_ and _Devastator_ to the Naboo System, were you first met the Federation people, and have them destroy them when they arrive to try and return to were they came from."

"It will be done my Master." Vader said as the image of the Emperor vanished.


End file.
